The working competency items for energy technology: A three-stage empirical method

This study employed a three-stage empirical method to establish a set of working competency items considered important for energy technology based on industrial requirements. Stage I was conducted to develop an initial list of competencies comprised of Behavioral Event Interviews (BEI) with three energy technology field engineers. In Stage II the Delphi Technique involved three rounds of questionnaire surveys of ten field experts and scholars followed by the Kendall Coefficient of Concordance Analysis examining the consistency of respondent opinions to check to see whether they reach a level of significance. A list of 45 competencies in 3 domains was then developed. In Stage III these competencies and domains were verified quantitatively by surveying 32 learners studying energy technology followed by a nonparametric Mann-Whitney U Test. The research findings reveal the practical competency requirements for students in a technology university program.