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The main purpose of this paper is to outline a systematic procedure in developing and validating a competency model and instrument to measure competency for Chefs who works in the hotel industry in Malaysia. Reviewing previous studies in the development and validation of competency models and measurement instrument for a profession had demonstrates that the methodological process starts with the identification of competency constructs and statements from literature review, document analysis and interviewing. The process is furthered by acquiring consensus from expert panel for content validity and questionnaire survey in order to validate the competency model. The methodological aspects described in this paper will present both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

This study is designed to identify the teaching methods that influence the acquisition of practical skills of mechanical engineering trades students at technical college level using regression analysis. Descriptive survey research design was utilized in carrying out the study. Ninety nine (99) mechanical engineering trades' teachers and fourty six (46) administrators in the technical colleges in north central states of Nigeria responded to a structured questionnaire which addressed the research question. Cronbach Alpha coefficient was used in determining the reliability of the instrument. The reliability co-efficient of the instrument used for data collection stood at 0.78. It was recommended that mechanical engineering trades teachers and administrators in the schools be encouraged to use different instructional methods, especially the methods identified in the study as the most significant determinants of the teaching methods that influence the acquisition of practical, so that the students can acquire the skills for gainful employment in the labor market or be able to establish on their own and become self-reliant.

In linear quadratic regulator (LQR), two different weighting matrices play an important role in presenting the performance of this controller. Instead of using classic common approach, which is trial and error method, this study proposes a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to track the best solution of the weighting matrices. The proposed algorithm is tested on shunt hybrid active power filter (APF) to mitigate the harmonic contents in voltage and current signals in a nonlinear load system. The modeling work of this proposed system is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink software. From the simulation, the obtained results proved that using PSO in tuning the LQR controller produce smoother nonlinear voltage and current signals. In fact, the amount of current to be injected into network can be reduced up to 95%. Besides, less time is consumed during searching the optimum weighting matrices using the proposed approach.

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