IT skills body E-skills UK has defended its new IT Professional Competency Model following suggestions that the latest skills framework could confuse IT professionals and employers by coming into conflict with the existing Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).
Unveiled earlier this week and backed by E-skills, the BCS and IT trade group Intellect, the Competency Model aims to improve levels of IT professionalism and create a common terminology for IT roles.
To achieve this it sets out a framework that classifies IT professionals based on the broad competencies they possess, such as business change management, solution architecture, and programme, project and supplier management, their transferable skills and their abilities in these different competencies. It then ranks them as an associate professional, professional, senior professional, lead professional or principal in one or more of the different competencies.
"[The model] will enable employers to understand clearly what someone should be able to do and the standard of performance they can expect - supporting recruitment, performance management and staff development," said Karen Price of E-skills UK in a statement. "[While] individual IT professionals will be able to use the model to better clarify development needs, career paths and aspirations. "
Price added that the model "will also inform the content of qualifications, education and training courses".
However, some commentators have argued that the new model and its stated aims of better defining IT roles and providing a clear career path for IT professionals precisely mirror SFIA's goal of creating a common terminology for IT roles.
"The only skills framework I've heard spoken about credibly is SFIA, so to come out with something similar that will confuse the market is not helpful," said Robert Chapman, managing director of IT training firm The Training Camp. " IT should be seen as a profession like accountancy and law, and that means a formal skills framework is needed, but the last thing the industry needs is competing standards."
However, Margaret Sambell of E-skills insisted that the two frameworks are complementary and that the Competency Model provides a simpler framework that can then be "mapped onto" SFIA. She added that while E-skills is delighted that SFIA is gaining traction, there is a need for a simplified version. "When we are talking to students [they tell us that] SFIA is very detailed, so the aim [of the new model] is to provide a simple window [into different IT roles] that they can then look through," she said. "If they then want to, they can look at SFIA for more detailed [roles and requirements]."
Adam Thilthorpe of the BCS, which helped in the development of both frameworks, admitted he could understand why people may interpret the two models as competing, but similarly argued that there was no such conflict and that SFIA would "feed into" the Competency Model.
"The Competency Model is intended to be high-level and describe broad competencies; it is for IT leaders who also have business skills," Thilthorpe explained. "SFIA also includes some business skills but goes further into the nuts and bolts of technical skills." He added that the aim was to ensure the two frameworks remained complementary. "We don’t want them to diverge, we want them to converge," he said.
However, Teresa Jones of analysts Butler Group argued that even if the plan was to morph the two models into one, it was still "confusing" to have more than one framework. While Chapman also argued that with SFIA gaining support it is hard to see the value in setting up a second framework. "If SFIA needs a top layer, why not just add it to SFIA?" he asked.
Perhaps surprisingly, given that the new Competency Model has just been launched, Sambell agreed that this was "a fair point" and that it may be a " good thing" to ultimately bring the frameworks together under one name.
But Mike Davis of analysts Ovum insisted that despite the criticism of the new model, ultimately two competency frameworks were better than none. "IT is quite embryonic in terms of skills development, despite it being 60 years old," he said. "That means we will get several different frameworks. And while there may be some confusion, it is important we have them because clearly defined roles and accreditations are key to driving professionalism in IT and challenging the perception that we are all geeks in sandals."
