Its the same with competence and competency

Competency, as I understand it, is a legal term meaning capacity to testify in a court of law; eligibility to be sworn, a witness would be legally competent) but it can also mean the same as competence (capable, able; sufficient income to live on).

Recently (in the UK and perhaps elsewhere) it has used in the sense of "the job requires certain competencies". It always irritates me as it seems a rather clumsy word when the term "level or levels of competence" works perfectly well.

That's my gripe of the week over with!