(Part three of a seven-part series about careers in Emergency Management.)

I suppose all nascent professions struggle with defining the core competencies (knowledge and skills) necessary to understand and perform within that profession.  Emergency management is no exception. Beyond that, however, higher education requires those competencies to be translated into a curriculum and therein lies the conundrum.

Back in 2004/2005, during the last round of discussions about defining critical skills and core competencies for emergency management education, several surveys were taken asking different groups to list the top ten core competencies, in priority order.

One survey, conducted by Daryl Spiewak , CEM, TEM, TCFM, asked practicing emergency managers to choose the most important critical skills or competencies.  They were:

1. Planning
2. Hazard ID, Risk Assessment, Impact Analysis
3. Direction, control and coordination
4. Laws and authorities
5. Exercise evaluations, corrective actions
6. Communication and warnings
7. Hazard mitigation
8. Resource management
9. COOP/COG
10. Mutual Aid

Another survey asked the same question of higher ed institutions that offered a 4-year degree program.  Their answers were focused quite differently.

1. Critical thinking
2. Verbal communications
3. Emergency and disaster management
4. Legal
5. Written communication
6. Management
7. Leadership
8. Exercises
9. Financial Management
10. Human Behavior

Obviously, the concept of 'core competency' varies depending on which side of the emergency management training/experience/education fence you stand on.  Today, there are still a fair number of myopic emergency managers who define core competency as the acquisition of specific skills and are dubious about the value of an education that doesn't appear to focus on those skills.  At the same time, higher education faculty struggles with how to integrate skills based training with formal education.

What is important to remember is that emergency management is moving from a narrowly focused occupation to a multi-level profession.  Higher education programs are developed within the framework of accepted educational models which teach -- not specific skills -- but how to broadly apply knowledge to a variety of situations and then analyze the results.

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