Hi James.
To introduce myself.  I'm the product manager for Perform.

The short answer is unfortunately no.  As you'll see from the thread the earlier implementation of this feature was not successful.  During our design phase for 13 we found this option generated considerable complexity, so for this first iteration of Competencies in Perform we decided begin by supporting courses.

There is a feature request TL-14310 for this discussed here that you can add your support to.

Thanks