Title: The Cost of Competency: Weighing Authentic Skills Acquisition against Learner and Trainee Safety in Competency-Based Education Systems
Authors: Asiimwe Isaac Kazaara, Akampulira Sarah, Dr. Mategeko Betty
Volume: 10
Issue: 8
Pages: 291-300
Publication Date: 2026/08/28
Abstract:
Competency-Based Education (CBE) systems place a premium on authentic, hands-on skills acquisition as the defining marker of trainee competence, yet the pursuit of authenticity often requires exposing learners to real tools, live materials, and workplace-equivalent conditions that carry genuine safety risk. This study, titled "The Cost of Competency: Weighing Authentic Skills Acquisition against Learner and Trainee Safety in CBE Systems," examined the relationship between authentic skills acquisition (ASA), institutional safety climate (ISC), safety risk exposure (SRE), perceived competency attainment (PCA), and incident or near-miss risk (INC) among trainees enrolled in Ugandan Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions operating under competency-based curricula. A cross-sectional, quantitative design was adopted, and a structured questionnaire was administered to a simulated analytic sample of 380 trainees drawn from four programme areas: Engineering and Construction, ICT and Electrical Installation, Agriculture and Agro-processing, and Hospitality and Hairdressing. Data were analysed at three levels: univariate description of respondent characteristics and scale properties, bivariate correlation and mean-comparison testing, and structural equation modelling (SEM) to establish the direct, indirect, and total pathways linking authentic skills acquisition and institutional safety climate to incident risk. The results showed that authentic skills acquisition was moderately and positively associated with both perceived competency attainment (r = 0.52, p < .001) and safety risk exposure (r = 0.33, p < .001), confirming that authentic practice carries a measurable safety cost. Structural equation modelling further revealed that safety risk exposure fully mediated the pathway from authentic skills acquisition to incident risk (standardised indirect effect = 0.170, p < .001), while institutional safety climate exerted a strong protective total effect on incident risk (? = ?0.486, p < .001), operating both directly and by dampening risk exposure. The model fitted the data well (?²/df = 1.31, CFI = 0.982, TLI = 0.979, RMSEA = 0.029). The study concluded that the safety cost of authentic competency acquisition in CBE systems is not an inevitable trade-off but a manageable one: institutions with strong, deliberately engineered safety climates can sustain high levels of authentic, hands-on skills practice without a proportional rise in learner and trainee harm. The study recommends that CBE implementers institutionalise structured risk-graded practice protocols, invest in supervisory and infrastructural safety climate measures ring-fenced from assessment-driven performative compliance, and adopt routine incident and near-miss monitoring as a standing feature of competency-based assessment systems.