How to “Get Competent”?

Competency in knowledge work, like engineering, is a hot topic. We live in a built environment, and when things go wrong a legitimate question is, whether those involved were competent at their job.  Competency has been defined as having the right knowledge, skills and experience in a task or topic. There are numerous attempts at describing what is needed to be competent in specialist areas (engineering in general, pipeline engineering or systems engineering specifically). But sometimes these frameworks fall short of telling a person who wants to get competent, what to do next, to attain that knowledge, skills and experience.