Many professions establish “continuing competence” requirements, such as education hours or credits, as a means to encourage maintenance of up-to-date knowledge and skills.  Health regulators in Canada, for example, identify “continuing competency” as a key aspect of their quality assurance programs.

Few can clearly define “continuing competence” in concrete terms, and in reality it's not simple.  A professional’s competence evolves over their career-span, and it does so in areas related to the specifics of their personal practice.  Few would say that it’s in the public interest for an experienced professional’s competence to ”continue” at entry-level!

Whereas entry-level competence in a profession is necessarily a one size fits all requirement, Career-Span Competence (as we more accurately refer to it) is individualized, evolutionary, and based on a practitioner’s focus of practice.

 From a performance perspective:

Career-Span Competence is something of a moving target!

​How do we define, let alone manage, a moving target? 

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