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Generic competencies or skills, as represented in the Mayer Key Competencies, appear to have drifted in and out of fashion with policy makers over the past decade. Originally conceived as essential, especially for the education of adolescents in order to make them work ready, research findings indicate that there are problems with these competencies/skills and the ways in which they are being implemented, particularly in Australia. This paper looks at some of the more recent research evidence and analyses the problems and issues from a cognitive psychology-skill learning perspective. It is concluded that there are important generalisation and transfer of learning issues that have not been adequately taken into account in earlier conceptualisations of these generic competencies and current implementation practices.

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