Core Competencies
Well said, however, "Core Competencies is a concept started by the UK CAA and is being championed by Fergus Woods, formerly of the CAA now head of JAA.
It is also a goal of ICAO to overhaul the licensing standard and has been embraced by the Canadian CAA.
The goal is to have pilots/instructors do a skill with less emphasis on mandatory hours, such as 30 hours of dual time to become an instructor with government designed lesson plans. In other words, recognizing what the pilot needs to be able to do in the "real world" This means less "snapshot" type of judging systems such as a flight test in which navigation capability is assessed in 15 minutes against a minimum standard to more integrated training/testing element that is more school monitored.