Use Online Tools to Expedite Your Job Skills Vote

An essential component of the National Convergence Technology Center’s (CTC) Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT) model involves the annual vote and discussion of entry-level IT job skills. Each summer, the CTC’s BILT works through a detailed list of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs – which now also includes tasks) line by line, ranking each item on a scale of 1 to 4. After the vote, BILT members discuss and debate as needed both the voting results as well as the wording of each KSA item. Regular blog readers – and devoted practitioners of the BILT model – know well that this KSA list is considered a living document. Revisions and changes each year are common.

For years, the KSA vote was conducted by either a manual hand count of raised hands in the room or voice votes on a meeting conference phone. But the CTC recently supported a new approach using free online Google tools. Now the votes all happen virtually. BILT members vote with smartphones and laptops (via a URL) that sends their results into a Google Form. That data is then collected into a linked Google Sheet and transferred to the traditional KSA spreadsheet that tallies and averages the KSA votes.

This online system has three big advantages:

* Speed – Removing the tedious hand count makes the vote go much faster. What could take up to 20 minutes now takes five. Some colleges even use the online Google system to collect votes prior to the start of the meeting, thereby allowing more time to discuss the vote results. In addition, shortening the vote can also shorten the overall meeting length. You can do more in less time.

* Vote receipt – Adjusting the settings in Google Forms now allows BILT members to receive via email a copy of their vote. This eliminates the confusion of employers trying to remember how they voted for a specific KSA, which can be tricky in a list of 70+ items.

* Revote – The online Google system also makes it easier to revote on a specific KSA item. The same automatic email that provides employers with a record of their vote can also send a link to submit a new, replacement vote.

You can learn more about using the free online Google system by downloading our PDF directions or watching our tutorial video.

You can also learn how to download a “pre-linked” Google Form and Google Sheet version of the CTC’s September 2020 KSA update here.