Core Competency Documents

Core competencies refer to the observable skills and dispositions needed by professionals in order to provide high quality care and education to children and their families.

The Northern Lights Core Competencies for Early Childhood Professionals apply to all professionals working with young children and their families, at Level I, II and III. Levels IV, V and VI will be added when completed. Look at the full early childhood career ladder describing the education and experience required to complete each level (I-VI) here.

The Early Childhood Family Mental Health Core Competencies accompany and broaden the Northern Lights Core Competencies. They detail the full spectrum of levels (foundational to specialist) in the field. There are a wide range of professionals that use these domains in their work.

The Northern Lights Core Competencies for Afterschool Professionals apply to persons working with school age children, beginning with the kindergarten year, in before or after school programs. They are designed to serve entry level staff persons and build up to competencies typical of afterschool program administrators. The competencies are the first piece of an emerging career lattice system that is diverse and will lead to a broad range of education and human service vocations.

Components of Competency documents
Competency documents are made up of several descending parts:

The core knowledge areas or domains represent the key knowledge areas of the profession. They may seem to be specific areas of knowledge, but when used they are actually interrelated. Each domain includes a number of sub domains or subheadings.

The levels build on each other. Level II (intermediate level) includes the competencies of Level I (foundational level), and so forth. The levels for Afterschool professionals also broaden their scope of knowledge as they advance. In general, the levels reflect differences across the domains in experience, depth of knowledge, ability to work independently, and the impact professionals may have on the field. The levels may also relate to credentials or degrees earned, but not necessarily. For example, a person may have a bachelor’s degree in accounting but is at Level I in the field of early childhood.

Core Competencies are concrete, achievable and observable statements. They establish standards of practice that strengthen the profession.

Core competency documents can be used for a variety of purposes. They can be used to assess learning needs of students, employees, whole programs or teams. They can be used to develop and evaluate professional development curricula, or as a tool for supervision and mentoring.

All three of these core competency documents will continue to evolve in order to best serve the broad range of professionals who use them.