IT professionals unaware of skills management resources

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UK employees want IT skills to be centrally assessed, but many are oblivious that national bodies already exist for skills management, according to a survey published this week.

Some 83 per cent of those questioned by accelerated learning provider The Training Camp were unaware of IT skills initiatives that offer standardised career and qualification support, like the not-for-profit body Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).

And a further 79 per cent of the 609 students surveyed believed there should be a professional body for IT skills management, despite the fact that SFIA provides a common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective information systems.

"SFIA is an outstanding organisation and provides the exact information and support IT professionals are looking for," said Robert Chapman, The Training Camp's chief executive. But he told IT PRO the survey should act as a call to action for the IT training industry and employers to promote the benefits of resources like SFIA so IT staff can plan their career progression in line with national standards.

"Accountants and lawyers may not have formal frameworks, but are aware they can measure their skills set against an average standard," he said. "It should be the same for IT people."

The skills framework also enables employers of IT professionals to carry out a range of human resource (HR) activities against a common framework of reference that includes skills audits, planning future skill requirements, development programmes, standardisation of job titles and functions and resource allocation.

SFIA is jointly owned by industry skills bodies, e-Skills UK, the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), the Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS) and the British Computer Society (BCS).

A BCS spokeswoman said: "Our SFIAplus skills framework, which is based on SFIA, is currently being accessed by thousands of IT professionals across 138 organisations, both public and private sector, including high-profile, blue chip companies."

But Chapman stressed that the survey findings suggest more needs to be done to raise the number of organisations accessing SFIA and promoting it internally among their IT-skilled workforce. "It will also help businesses manage their talent pool and better understand the threats and opportunities within their workforce for staffing successful IT projects," he said.

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