This conceptual paper outlines the descriptive theoretical foundations or kernel theories for designing an information and communication technology (ICT) tool to assess professional competences in the Austrian trade and craft sector. Upon completion, the ICT-tool serves as a boundary object in which applicants and assessors can interact. While this paper consists of a literature review and conceptual discussion, the overall project is methodologically placed within a multidisciplinary design-science paradigm. Design science scaffolds and structures the development of a theoretical model, the generation of assessment-items and the ICT-tool itself. This paper discusses the necessary descriptive knowledge or kernel theories on which the design of the ICT-tool rests. First, we describe the validation of prior learning - a process advocated by the European Union to make professional competences visible. Second, we describe the process how professional competences come about: through formal, non-formal and informal learning. Subsequently, we outline a knowledge-driven discourse on professional competences and discuss how different definitions of professional competence afford different approaches for its assessment. By presenting a use-case, we outline how the ICT-tool may guide applicants and assessors through this process.

The development of information and communication technologies (ICT), mainly in the 21st century, has generated a series of changes within an increasingly globalized world, allowing companies to incorporate technological tools according to their needs.As a result of the above, the article presents the impacts of incorporating ICTs at the level of the value chain, with the aim of analyzing the consequences within the business activities defined within it. Likewise, the potential opportunities generated by these tools are raised, in order to support decision making at the managerial level through knowledge of its benefits and implications. / El desarrollo de las tecnologías de información y comunicación (TIC), fundamentalmente en el siglo XXI, ha generado una serie de cambios dentro de un mundo cada vez más globalizado, permitiendo a las empresas incorporar herramientas tecnológicas de acuerdo a sus necesidades.A raíz de lo anterior, el artículo presenta los impactos de la incorporación de TIC’s a nivel de cadena de valor, con el objetivo de analizar las consecuencias dentro de las actividades empresariales definidas dentro de ella. Asimismo, se plantean las oportunidades potenciales que generan estas herramientas, con el fin de apoyar la toma de decisiones a nivel gerencial a través del conocimiento de sus beneficios e implicancias.