The production and destruction of individual competence: the role of vocational experience

Abstract

This article presents the results of research into the impact on individual skill levels of the variables traditionally represented by human capital. The discussion is centred around the way in which education and vocational experience contribute to the process of producing useful skills in the job market or, conversely, of making them obsolete. The data comes from a survey of five banks in which we asked supervisors to assess the skills of 600 employees (counter staff and customer managers). It is a hetero-assessment based on a list of skills and behaviours. The central theme of this article is to draw attention to the process of the invalidation of acquired knowledge which individuals can be faced with and the role which banks accord to the two sources of human capital. The complementarity or substitution of sources of skills acquisition is thus proposed on a case-by-case basis.