scope:

The name ""InLOC"" stands for ""Integrating Learning Outcomes and Competences"". InLOC offers a unified way of representing definitions both of intended learning outcomes - as used in learning, education and training - and of competences - as used typically by employers and those concerned with professional development. For readers who are not familiar with those terms and their background, please see the sections on Learning outcomes and Work competences. InLOC aims to help enable services that guide people to and through learning into employment. It will support mobility by enabling links to be made between information about a learner's capability, employers' requirements and intended outcomes of learning opportunities. As ""InLOC"" already stands for ""Integrating Learning Outcomes and Competences"", we use the shorter acronyms ""LOC"" to stand for ""learning outcome or competence"" and ""LOCs"" to stand for ""learning outcomes and/or competences"" according to context. Both ""learning outcome"" and ""competence"" are already a very well-used terms, with their own associated meanings. By bringing together both of these terms, ""LOC"" is intentionally wide in scope, and sidesteps some of the old arguments that have attached to the other terms. It could be said that the term ""competency"" was another attempt to establish a broad term, but ""LOC"" has the advantage of not being used before, and is therefore free of the connotations of the older terms. For concise definitions of the terms ""learning outcome"" and ""competence"", please see the Terms and Definitions section of the Information Model.