Firms value IT experience over qualifications

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Most firms value IT managers with experience more than qualifications, according to a survey by the British Computer Society (BCS).

Of the 252 IT professionals interviewed for the study, 88 per cent said their organisation rated the experience of their IT managers higher than their education. IT knowledge was also as more important than managerial skills.

But the BCS warned that firms must start to value qualifications for IT managers. "It is vital for British organisations to better gauge IT management skills using exacting qualification benchmarks," said David Clarke, the chief executive of the BCS. "Broad experience is no longer as relevant as it was as IT progresses towards more defined delivery roles and working within tighter budgetary constraints."

Nearly eighty per cent of firms use private training providers, while 67 per cent have in-house training for their IT managers, but two-thirds of those surveyed rated the quality of training courses for IT managers as moderate or lower.

The BCS has launched its own Professionalism in IT programme to battle what they see as "an alarming misapprehension" in the perceived value of the IT profession, Clarke said.

It believes that management training is vital as "soft" skills are increasingly becoming as important as technological knowledge.

"IT managers are now starting to have a much broader, influencing, role across the organisation and have to exercise more leadership skills," said Steve Smithson, from the BCS's management forum, which announced two conferences on the subject in April and May. "As a technology manager, the IT manager needs a mix of technical and management ability, yet as a business change agent, they also need to make a persuasive business case and be able to work closely with people from different disciplines and departments."

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