Description: During the last 5-8 years the overall educational aims - as well as the goals for the individual subjects - have changed from qualifications towards an emphasis on competencies, in order to stress the acting aspect of what is learned. The competence discourse has permeated into the educational field from the business world and from international policy-oriented organisations, such as OECD (Rychen & Salganik 2001). It has conquered the qualification discourse and is now competing with the traditional Central European goals formulated in 'bildung' terms (the Central European concept with no direct English equivalent, but with an increasing dissemination throughout the educational word). In some aspects you can argue that competence is connected to the Anglo-American curriculum tradition while the 'bildung' goals are close to the Central European 'didactics' tradition (Westbury 2000). In a decline perspective you might look at this development as an educational step backward, as an adaptation of our school system to the liberal, market driven logic. But in a learning orientated perspective you may consider the competence direction as a way to a more progressive pedagogic. The presentation will take this more proactive stand. The presentation will give a view on the differences between competencies and other ways of describing the educational aims (qualifications, literacy, 'bildung') and their implications for education - and for teaching and learning. So instead of a more general approach, it will develop the concepts close to practice: in the concrete subject and its practice. With science (and physics in particular) as an example the presentation will report from a national Danish curriculum development project aiming at adjusting and preparing the science educations for the 21th century (Dolin et al 2003). The project was inspired by mainstream literacy orientated curriculum projects (Millar & Osborne 1999, AAAS 1990). The presentation will discuss questions such as: What is it to be competent in science in general, and in physics in particular? Which competencies are central for young people (in science)? What is 'bildung', and what is it in science? How do you implement a competence-based curriculum? How do you assess competencies? It will be argued that balancing competencies against the 'bildung' aspects will have considerable advantages in educational goal setting. Methodology: The results reported here stem from a collaborative action research project in the Danish upper secondary school (gymnasium) combined with studies of different theoretical approaches to the competence concept. I followed three classes in the two years compulsory physics classes (year 10-11) in order to establish the characteristic forms of knowing and doing in physics - independent of the concrete physics content. These forms or categories developed through analysis were compared with the practice in other science subjects to formulate a set of common basic science competencies. Conclusions: A conceptualization of competence based on observation and analysis of classroom practice in accordance with mainstream theoretical literature. A concrete list of competencies describing destinctive demands within a subject and a group of related subjects. Guidelines for implementing and evaluating competencies in a subject.