INTEGRATING LABOR SKILLS CERTIFICATION WITH

TRADITIONAL TRAINING FOR ELECTRIC POWER

OPERATORS

R. Molina

, I. Paredes

Gerencia de Sistemas Informáticos, Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas, México

Unidad de Servicios Técnicos, Comisión Federal de Electricidad, México

M. Domínguez, L. Argotte, N. Jácome

Gerencia de Sistemas Informáticos, Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas México

Keywords: Web Databases, Information Systems Integration, Competences, Skills, Training.

Abstract: In this paper the integration of a traditional training system with a competence management model is

conceptually described. The resulting e-system is accessed through powerful Web interfaces and contains a

comprehensive database that maintains information of the two models. The traditional model emphasizes

the contractual worker training rights and the skills model the alignment of the human talent with the

mission and objectives of the company. The paper describes the specific traditional training model of CFE

(Federal Electricity Commission), its competences model and the integration of the two models following a

thematic contents approach.

1 INTRODUCTION

Derived from governmental policies related to

training management and considering its strategic

planning objectives, CFE (Comisión Federal de

Electricidad – the National Electric Utility in

Mexico, a 70,000 employee power company) has

established a strategic program to improve its human

capital offering 10 training days per year for each

employee. This program is related to labor skills for

CFE that is responsible for generating, transmitting

and distributing electricity through out the Mexican

nation.

In the literature there are papers that describe

labor skills systems (Hatfield, 2007) (Glen, 2006)

(Riley, 1994) but none includes the integration with

training. In this paper first, a traditional training

model of CFE is presented, second, the model of

labor skills management and certification is

described, and third, the integration of the two

models is discussed.

2 THE TRADITIONAL TRAINING

MODEL

For more than 20 years, CFE has executed a training

program that includes a coherent and comprehensive

group of standards developed. The norms are

classified in four groups:

Planning: Position Profiles, Training Batteries,

Training profile per worker, Individual Knowledge

Matrix, Individualized Training Program, Specific

problem solution oriented program

Organization and Integration: Revision,

consolidation and authorization of the annual

training program, Instructors' development.

Execution: Execution, Budget, Reports, Statistical

Control: Diagnostic evaluations, Partial evaluations,

Course reports and credits, Worker's evaluation in

his position, aptitude record,

The objective of the traditional program is to

obtain an annual training program of individualized

courses with impact in the productivity indexes.

CFE classifies the hundreds of employee

positions of its organizational chart into organic

groups or levels (from I to XII) depending on the

429

Molina R., Paredes I., Domínguez M., Argotte L. and Jácome N. (2008).

INTEGRATING LABOR SKILLS CERTIFICATION WITH TRADITIONAL TRAINING FOR ELECTRIC POWER OPERATORS.

In Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - DISI, pages 429-432

DOI: 10.5220/0001682304290432

 SciTePress

position responsibility (director, manager,

department boss, operator, clerk, etc.), the position

participation in business processes (generation,

transmission, distribution) or support processes, if

the position is unionized, and the remuneration level.

For each employee a career plan defines the

positions that are allowed for the worker to pass

from his current position level to a position in an

organic level immediately superior and to other

positions up in the organizational hierarchy.

Each position in the organization has an assigned

profile that it includes one or more specialties, for

example:

 Maintenance (mechanic, instrumentation,

electric);

 Operation (analysis and results, engineering,

chemical);

 Planning (supply, analysis, studies);

 Services (billing);

 etc.

The specialties are classified in levels that match

with the academic levels: secondary, high school,

primary technician, secondary technician, bachelor,

graduate, master, and doctorate. In this fashion, the

annual training needs are detected.

3 LABOR SKILLS

CERTIFICATION MODEL

A competency, job or labor skill is a specific

capacity to perform a productive function in

different labor contexts on the basis of obtaining

quality results in the corresponding productive

sector. A job skill standard indicates which

knowledge, abilities and attitudes define the

competence. A productive sector is a part of the

society that specializes in some type of activity, for

example, agriculture, health, or energy (Molina and

Rodriguez, 2005).

In contrast with a traditional training system, the

main objective of a job skills management system or

program is to certify individuals in knowledge,

skills, expertise, abilities, and attitudes appropriate

for specific enterprise productive functions

independent of how they acquired them.

3.1 Job Skills Technical Standards

Management

In this section, the JSTS management module of the

e-system is described. It includes the productive

functions map for the electric sector, the

collaboration mechanisms for the JSTS

development, printing and publishing, and the

content structures to manage their storage.

A Job Skill Technical Standard (JSTS) is defined

and developed by a Job Skill Standard Committee

(compose of methodologists, technicians and

specialists, among other) authorized by CFE, and

approved by the National Council for Job Skills

Standardization and Certification (CONOCER,

Spanish initials) and sanctioned by the Public

Education and the Work and Social Affairs

Secretaries of State. A JSTS establishes, for

repeated and common use in the whole Mexican

States territory, the characteristics and the guidelines

for the evaluation of capacity or labor competence.

In Figure 1, a semantic model is shown for the

normalization management that has been

implemented with a relational database management

system.

Figure 1: Semantic Model for job skills normalization.

The methodologists (leader, group, and observer)

support the generation of the knowledge included in

a JSTS, and the experts (technicians) in a productive

function contained in the company’s functional map

provide the knowledge. Roughly, the functional map

of the CFE is a functions hierarchy or tree where the

functions corresponding to the highest level are four:

1. To operate the equipment for electric power

generation, transmission, transformation and

distribution.

2. To maintain the equipment for electric power

generation, transmission, transformation and

distribution under operating conditions.

3. To manage the operation and energy transactions

of the Power Electrical System.

4. To provide the electric power utility service.

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It is no the intention of this paper to show the

complete functional map for each one of the four

mentioned highest level functions, it would be very

extensive. All functions are composed of sub-

functions.

For example, for the function 2.2.1.4.2 several

standards are at hand, one of those is the norm:

CCFE0628.01 Mechanical maintenance of steam

turbines with high and low pressure cylinder.

In this way, CFE had to elaborate a JSTS for

each one of the lowest level productive functions of

the company (approximately two hundred norms).

A JSTS or norm contains units and a unit

contains elements. In turn, the elements include

evaluation instruments that are the performance

criteria related with categories, in such a way that

for an element different skills evidences can be

assessed, either for abilities, for knowledge or for

attitudes.

The functional map structure defines the

enterprise purpose; it defines the strategic key

functions, and recursively the more basic key sub-

functions. To the lowest level key functions of in

this hierarchy corresponds a certain number of

standard elements. Both the norms and the

functional map are documents that can be stored in

electronic format files.

Note that a JSTS applies to one or more

company processes (Generation, Transmission,

Transformation, Control or Distribution), and a

process is ruled by one or more norms.

In a similar way, a JSTS can be assigned to one

or more functional positions in the organization and

a position is ruled by one or more norms. One can

observe that to work in a company position, a

person will have to be certified in several labor

competences.

Each standardized competence or labor skill has

assigned a performance level according to the

English NVQ system (National Vocational

Qualification). This classification of the

competences is in five performance levels, based on

different variables: complexity of the behavior,

variety of acting in different contexts, autonomy

and responsibility, requirement level, and of the

collaboration management of other people and

resources.

3.2 Model for JSTS Certification

A Web system was developed for the planning,

evaluation and certification of CFE’s personnel in

labor competences. The model includes structures

to record and monitor the personnel's certification

process: from the candidate’s interview, his

evaluation, until his final registration at

CONOCER.

4 INTEGRATING THE LABOR

SKILLS MODEL AND THE

TRADITIONAL TRAINING

MODEL

The integration of the traditional model and the

labor skills model includes several aspects like the

personnel recruitment; the diverse levels the

specialties, and the course batteries of the

employees' career plans. The objective is that the

traditional training model supports to the

employees' labor competences certification without

affecting the training contractual rights.

The approach followed to integrate the labor

skills concept with traditional training is centered in

the concept of thematic content that the training

course programs will have to include to support the

employee in the labor skills certification. The idea

is to establish and achieve thematic consistency

between the elements of the labor skills norms of

the functional map key functions and the specialty

courses of the employee position profiles.

Figure 2: Competence oriented specialty courses.

The convergence process includes the following

steps:

1. Find the business and productive functions from

the organizational positions.

2. Correlate the elements of the functional map key

functions with the productive functions of the

organizational positions.

3. The set of specialties (SP1, SP2,... SPn) is

obtained from the position profiles of the productive

organizational functions.

4. The configuration of specialties based on skills or

competences (c1, c2, … cn) is achieved by

INTEGRATING LABOR SKILLS CERTIFICATION WITH TRADITIONAL TRAINING FOR ELECTRIC POWER

OPERATORS

431

correlating the thematic content of the skills norm

with the content of the specialties courses and

adapting them or creating new contents to impact

the competence certification.

In this fashion, a specialty is a group of

competences, Sp1 = C1 + C2 +. + Cn, (see Figure

2).

As an example of a competence oriented

analysis for the courses thematic contents of master

level specialty, the design of a master degree

curriculum in power plant operation is briefly

described.

The analysis was carried out in a joint project

with the National Polytechnic Institute, one of the

most prestigious academic institutions en Mexico,

and the result is a 5 semester master in engineering

curriculum shown in the Table 1 where the courses

in shady background represent competence oriented

courses with thematic contents matched to the

thematic contents of labor skills. The first generation

of 15 employees will graduate by the end of the

spring of 2008.

Table 1: Competence oriented master in power plant

operation specialty courses.

The dimensions used in CFE to classify the

training levels are the organic position levels of the

employees, the competence or skill levels and the

specialty levels.

With these levels CFE knows if its personnel

have the appropriate qualification to his position

profile, competences and specialties, and to make

decisions with regard to the alignment of the labor

activities of his workers with the processes and

functions of the company.

5 THE e-SYSTEM

An e-system was developed that implements the

Web interfaces and the semantic nets that contain

the information of the training traditional system,

the competence management model and the

integration of the two models with competence

oriented courses.

The system has software for the production of

more than 130 interactive reports including the

following executive ones: Functional maps

displays; Listings of norms, granted certificates and

evaluation centers; The worker's record in terms of

positions, taken courses, competences and

specialties; Number of employees by organic level

that comply or not with the position profile of the

level of specialty and skills; Etc.

6 CONCLUSIONS

An e-system that integrates the competence

certification management and the traditional training

in a company that generates, transmits and

distributes electric power was conceptually

described. In the system CFE registers, among other

information, functional maps, competence and

training standards, planned and taken courses, and

the training record of each one of the 70,000

employees, and obtains executive reports that allow

to know if the employees comply or not with the

their organization position profile in terms of

specialty and competence levels.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank to Guillermo Rodriguez for his

collaboration in writing and reviewing this paper.

REFERENCES

Hatfield, D., 2007. Using a skills bank for work-based

learning. Education + Training. Emerald Group

Publishing Limited.

Glen, C., 2006. Key skills retention and motivation: the

war for talent still rages and retention is the high

ground. Industrial and Commercial Training. Emerald

Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0019-7858.

Riley, M., 1994. Tracing Skills Accumulated through

Experience. A Method of Skill Auditing. Education +

Training, MCB University Press.

Molina, R., Rodríguez-Ortiz, G., Paredes-Rivera, I.,

Argotte, L., Domínguez, M., Jácome, N., 2005. A

Knowledge Management Model for Job Skills in a

Power Company. 9th World Multi-Conference on

Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. ISBN 980-

6560-29-9, pp. 1-6

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