The typical professional tasks (TPT) identified for a specific occupational field are considered to be a valid point of reference for describing and assessing vocational learning outcomes. These tasks represent the skilled labour in the respective occupational field and are described in terms of complete jobs including planning and controlling aspects. TPT are performed at workplaces within real work processes, which are organized in consecutive work cycles. Within the work cycles different actions (which may recur within the complete production process) can be distinguished. Again, these actions are describable in terms of knowledge and skills. After analysing dozens of workplaces it became clear that work processes and work cycles are strongly determined by the product and the production method respectively. Therefore a description of competences at this level of complexity is not feasible for an instrument to describe and certify competences in a transparent way. Even expert workers from another plant would not be able to comprehend them. But we found a set of very clear work steps (complete actions) for each TPT which are repeated in almost all workplaces related to the same TPT. Depending on the TPT the amount of these steps varies from 5 to 15.