Competence development is highly dependent on the context. Teamwork competences for instance do not exist per se, they must be acquired and “acted out” in the specific team context, determined by members, challenges, vision, goals, environment and other external and internal factors.

Hence the validation (identification assessment, documentation and certification) of competences only meaningful if we consider the contexts in which they are required and shall be acquired.

In LEVEL5 reference systems are designed to allow this contextualisation by inserting specific context related descriptors for learning outcomes (for design and validation purposes).