This contribution reviews how four European countries--England, Germany, France and the Netherlands--use the concept of competence in the process of developing vocational education and training. Competence in England is set in the context of the National Vocational Qualifications; in Germany within action competence and the approach to learning areas; in France within the "Emploi Type Etudie dans sa Dynamique" (ETED, translated by Cereq as "Typical Employment Studied in Its Dynamics") and the "bilan de competences"; and, in the Netherlands, the concept is strongly linked to the development of a competence-based qualification structure for senior secondary vocational education. The nature of this review is rather descriptive as it aims to present a comparison of the meaning and use of the concept of competence within these respective countries. It can be concluded that despite a certain amount of diversity, especially at the instrumental level, there is enough conceptual convergence within the four above-mentioned countries to posit some common principles of competence and competence-based VET. In a subsequent contribution, Mulder et al. (this issue) will present a more critical analysis of the literature on the competence concept and its use. To avoid unnecessary overlap, the list of references for this article will be included in that second critical literature review. (Contains 1 table.)