Competence management constitutes of a larger entity, where the three main aspects are the foresighting, planning and ensuring competence. Ensuring competence can be divided into acquisition, transfer, development and maintenance of competence (Wilska & Sääskilahti 2003). Laakso-Manninen & Viitala (2007) discuss the terms competence management and human resources development. According to the researchers, competence management nurtures and develops an organization’s competencies at all levels and this requires direction, definition, evaluation, planning and development. Competence management gives direction to human resources development. In competence management practice and research today generally one element of ensuring the competences - the development of competences - is highlighted. The other main aspects - foresight and planning - are neither discussed nor studied sufficiently. The insufficient research might result from the undefined concepts. Hong and Ståhle (2005) assert that, despite the increasing significance of knowledge and competence management, there is a lack of conceptual clarification of what they actually mean. In strategic human resource management the foresight mechanisms become increasingly important also in educational world. Especially the dynamics of competences, capabilities and intellectual capital (Ståhle & Bounfour 2008; Teece, Pisano & Shuen 1997) are significant to ensure competitive education. It is a paradox that educational organizations construct foresight processes for the use of labour market demand and supply chain, i.e. for the use of their customers. The foresight of teacher competences has been left in the background, though the competence management and development of teachers in vocational and higher education should be considered with intense care. Education and Training 2010 report (European Commission 2004) recommends that competences and qualifications of teachers and trainers should be developed as a matter of priority. The research question is: what are the pathways for the foresight mechanism of teacher competences in the context of strategic human resources management? The objective of the research is to perform a conceptual analysis of the phenomena. The conceptual analysis will be used later for constructing pathways for the mechanism in the subsequent action research. The theoretical framework of the research is based on strategic human resources management theories and perspectives of Hall (1984) and Laakso-Manninen and Viitala (2007), competence management theories and perspectives of Sanchez and Heene (1996; 2004), Hong and Ståhle (2005), Ståhle and Bounfour (2008) and Teece et al. (1997). Also the foresight theories and perspectives of Hiltunen (2008), Coffman (1997) and Slaughter (1995) will be examined.

The research strategy is theoretical research with conceptual analytical approach. The research compares, compiles and combines theories and perspectives of strategic human resource management, competence management and foresight. The analysis leads into the conceptual construct of pathways for the foresight mechanism of teacher competences in vocational and higher education. The conceptual analytical approach has been chosen because the common base knowledge and practices are not adequate to solve the real life problem.

The results of the research describe the framework and pathways for the foresight mechanism of teacher competences in vocational and higher education. The framework is developed for foresighting teacher competences within a strategic human resources management context. The main three pathways in the mechanism are the pathways for detecting the needed competences for strategy implementation, the pathways for detecting rapid changes in the environment (dynamics of competences and weak signals) and the pathways for detecting the loss of competences (e.g. ageing workforce).