Competence is as an essential attribute of employees which describes their work ability, attitude, knowledge and skills. This study aims to explore whether work engagement as a mediator can influence the link between compensation and employee competence and also establish the nexus between the two variables within the context of Nigeria’s Universal Basic Education System Administration (UBESA). Studies that explore the impact of compensation on employee competence and the mechanism through which it influences employee competence appears to be scarce. The study used a quantitative approach to collect data from 341 randomly selected respondents. The instruments include the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, Compensation Scale and Competency Scale and were adapted from prior studies to suit the current study. SPSS Amos 24 was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that compensation has a significant influence on employee competence and that work engagement mediates the connection between compensation and employee competence. This study contributes theoretically by proposing a new model that examines the mediating effect of work engagement on compensation and employee competence. The findings provide a better insight for the management of Nigeria’s UBESA on how to increase employee competence. Finally, the study offers suggestions for future research.

In recent decades, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) has been embraced by several scholars in assessing the fitness of measurement model through structural equation modeling procedure. In this study, five variables namely HRM practices (recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal, compensation), psychological empowerment, affective commitment, work engagement, and employee competence were applied in carrying out the CFA. Applying the CFA procedure determines the researcher’s attempt to increase the ability of latent measurement model to be more outlined and précised in drawing conclusions as well as avoiding the violation of regression assumption. It appears more efficient with the use of Cronbach Alpha, Convergent validity, Discriminant Validity and Composite Reliability in the study analysis for the researcher to apply the result for further steps. Hence, findings of this study appear to be more corresponding with the overall aim of the study. Empirically, CFA is an effective tool for ensuring the best fit of measurement model. The inability of the current analysis to carry out the CFA using individual measurement serves as a great limitation. The application of pooled CFA is certainly a key to researchers in the quest to achieve the requirement for measurement model in a study with complex constructs/items. This paper aimed at presenting to the readers particularly those at the beginning stage, the importance of applying pooled CFA in empirical studies by highlighting the findings of the current study.