The concept of ability was first formally put forward by Professor david McLelland of Harvard University in 1973. It refers to the deep-seated characteristics that individuals can distinguish themselves from ordinary people in a certain job. It can be any individual characteristic that can be reliably measured or counted, such as motivation, traits, self-image, attitude or values, knowledge, cognition or behavioral skills in a certain field, which can significantly distinguish outstanding from ordinary performance.
Competency refers to the characteristics that individuals have and use continuously in an appropriate way to achieve ideal performance. These characteristics include knowledge, skills, self-image, social motivation, personality, way of thinking, psychological set and the way of thinking, perception and action. Competency training is to help participants achieve the required characteristics.
However, some scholars define competence from a broader perspective and think that competence includes three dimensions: occupation, behavior and strategic integration. Career dimension refers to the skills to deal with specific daily tasks; Behavior dimension refers to the skills of dealing with non-specific and arbitrary tasks; Strategic comprehensive dimension refers to the management skills combined with organizational situation.