Skills Vs Competence

Many times I have seen managers use the word skills and get confused when I question is it being skilled or being competent. I explain that Skills is knowing how to do while competence is knowing why you are doing it apart from the fact that you must know how to do it well!

A simpler example I can give is the difference between a road side mechanic and a dealership one. The road side mechanic is a skilled resource as he/she knows exactly how to fix and engine or a transmission, but ask a few questions on what happens inside the engine, and they may not know. A dealership mechanic with his/her training must know conceptually what happens inside and why something failed though increasingly I tend to see more skilled than competent people in industry. Competence comes out of a higher passion to learn.