Competencies Map
Competencies in public policy and management proposed by NASPAA, UNDESA/IASIA and Treasury Board of Canada
This site organizes, by public policy and management subject, the competencies for graduates of Masters-level public policy and public administration programs proposed by two standards bodies (The Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation (COPRA) of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA, 2012, pp 69-71) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration Task Force on Standards of Excellence for Public Administration Education and Training (UNDESA/IASIA, 2008, pp 9-10)) and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (see Key Leadership Competencies). See also Developing Policy Competencies - Facilitating the transition from academic to professional (Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, 2010). A discussion of these three exercises in identifying competencies can be found in Academic Respectability Meets Professional Utility (Clark and Pal, 2011).
Although some of the NASPAA and UNDESA/IASIA competencies require instruction in more than one subject (see Competencies and Instructional Course-Weeks), in the Competency Map below, each competency is listed only once, under its primary subject.
Each subject can be associated with one or other of the five NASPAA Domains of Universal Required Competencies (Standard 5.1). The NASPAA Competency Domains are indicated with the following symbols:
CD1 - to lead and manage in public governance;
CD2 - to participate and contribute to the policy process;
CD3 - to analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems and make decisions;
CD4 - to articulate and apply a public service perspectives; and
CD5 - to communicate and interact productively with a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry.
[NOTE: TO VIEW THE SAME ARRAY OF COMPETENCIES BY SUBJECT, WHERE THE SUBJECTS ARE ARRANGED BY PREDOMINANT COMPETENCY DOMAIN, GO TO NASPAA Competency Map.]