The emphasis in many professional/technical programs is on the acquisition of the technical skills. However, the foundation skills or SCAN skills are necessary to apply, communicate, and access the technical knowledge. With greater emphasis in professional/technical programs on foundation skills and of equal importance, their integration with technical skills and content has several benefits:

• Provides a meaningful context for information. "'Learning in order to know" should not be separated from 'learning in order to do'".
  *Learning a Living: A Blueprint for High Performance
  
• Develops higher-order capacities (problem solving, critical thinking, learning to learn) in learners.
• Provides a closer connection between the learning environment and the world of work for learners and teachers.
• Focuses more explicitly on foundation skill allows for greater accountability for learners and certification and portability of foundation skills.
• Breaks down the traditional barriers of academic and technical disciplines and allows for authentic integration of content and concepts.

What is being described in this section as core competencies includes the core elements that cut across all eight career clusters and the foundation skills that are the most relevant to the IT field. The core elements are foundation skills described with greater level of detail and emphasis than in the SCANS because of their importance to the IT field.