Defined terms
This site uses the terms below with precise meanings. Where a page uses one of them, it uses it in the sense defined here and nowhere else.
Every definition has its own anchor, so any page and any third party can link to a specific term rather than to the glossary as a whole.
Jump to a term
- Competence #competence
- The ability to perform to a defined standard in a work context. Not knowledge alone.
- Competence statement #competence-statement
- The atomic unit of the framework. A single observable competence at a single level, permanently identified.
- Domain #domain
- An area of competence. Eight exist. Applies to everyone regardless of role or context.
- Level #level
- The degree of autonomy, complexity, judgement, scope and accountability at which a competence is held.
- Overlay #overlay
- A set of statements specific to a professional function performed across domains.
- Extension #extension
- A set of statements specific to an applied technology, sector or business function.
- Occupational standard #occupational-standard
- A named role at a named level, expressed as a defined set of statements.
- Credential specification #credential-specification
- An awarding body’s definition of which statements a credential assesses, how, and to what standard.
- Coverage map #coverage-map
- The published statement of which statements a course or credential teaches and which it assesses, with weightings.
- Coverage #coverage
- Whether a statement is taught, assessed, or both. These are distinct claims.
- Conformance #conformance
- A declared and, at higher tiers, verified relationship between a product and the framework. Four tiers.
- Indicator #indicator
- An observable behaviour evidencing that a statement is met. Normative.
- Evidence example #evidence-example
- An illustration of how a statement might be assessed. Non-normative.
- Deprecated #deprecated
- A statement no longer current. Remains published permanently with a pointer to any successor.
- Stable / provisional #stable-provisional
- Whether a statement’s meaning may change at a minor release.
Additions and amendments to defined terms are amendments to the framework and follow the versioning policy. A term is never redefined in place: a changed meaning is a new version.