Traditionally, one qualifies as a professor through achievements in research. However, presently, at the age of mass-higher education, teaching competences become more and more important for the success of a university study programme. It is recognized that the professors are at the heart of the curriculum. In particular when a school wants to change to a new pedagogical methods the skills and commitment of the teaching staff are essential.

In order to set up a programme for training pedagogical competences of teachers in higher education it is necessary to assess the present level of competences.

Based on experiences with the development of several faculty development programmes an instrument has been developed allowing professors to list their relevant teaching training and to assess their own teaching competences. As the instrument is based on the same grid as that of a teaching portfolio, filling in the instrument could be seen as a first step in developing such a teaching portfolio. The presentation will describe the characteristics of the instrument and discuss how it can be used in the development of a didactic competences training programme.