This introduction and overview is part of a seven-section report that investigates how individual competence is defined and assessed in the settings of education and work. Following background rationale, the first portion develops a definition of competence as "a characteristic of an individual that underlies effective work performance." Focus throughout is on work performance as the target of competence, rather than on the broader area of life performance that subsumes it. Overviews are provided of the individual chapters: (1) Competence Assessment and Personnel Selection: Current Practices and Trends, (2) Assessment Centers: Theory, Practice, and Implications for Education, (3) Competence Assessment for Certification in the Professions, (4) The Definitions and Measurement of Competence in Higher Education, (5) Competence Assessment and the Courts: An Overview of the State of the Law, and (6) Summary: A Synthesis of Issues. The issues identified and described briefly here are the definition of competence, the discrepancy between actual practice and ideal practice, the definition of validity, barriers to improving the state of the practice, and implications for curriculum content. Each of the six chapters is available separately--see note. (LRA)