PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATE SURVEY SUMMARY RESEARCH REPORT

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Erik Brown
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1 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATE SURVEY SUMMARY RESEARCH REPORT 2004 Published by The British Computer Society and InfoBasis Limited For further information, contact: Donald Taylor Strategic Alliances Director InfoBasis +44 (0)

2 1. INTRODUCTION PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATE SURVEY 1.1 Background SUMMARY RESEARCH REPORT The BCS offer a range of products to assist organisations in developing their IT staff. The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) is the nationally recognised model of the skills needed to develop effective information systems. The BCS has enhanced and brought up-to-date this standard by aligning its own training and development standard, the Industry Structure Model (ISM) and SFIA to create SFIAplus. This is a more comprehensive tool that not only enables organisations to classify and benchmark their IT skills, but also to train and develop their team to meet their IT skill requirements. Market research has been requested to assess the market for career development products and services. The project has also been supported by InfoBasis, experts in skills management and BCS s strategic development partner. 1.2 Key objective To gain a better understanding of the market for professional development products, training, consultancy, and other services for IT practitioners so that the BCS can feed this information into its strategic planning. 1.3 Research method A web-based questionnaire was designed and posted on a hidden location on the BCS website. An list of about 3,000 IT decision makers in the UK was rented on a single use basis. The survey was also made available to users of the InfoBasis and BCS websites via links from the respective home pages; and also to BCS members via the e-bulletin (a fortnightly electronic newsletter). The total response was 183 completed questionnaires. 2

3 2. SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS % of respondents feel that their organisation considers developing their IT staff s professional skills as very or quite important % of those questioned indicated that their employer would regard having a professional development scheme for their IT staff that is accredited by an external body as very or quite important % of respondents suggested that their organisation considers membership of an IT professional body (for their IT staff) as very or quite important. However, over half feel that this isn t important of respondents have heard of ISM, 28% are aware of SFIA, 22% know of SFIAplus, and 16% have heard of Comp TIA Tech Career Compass. No other framework has an awareness level of more than 3%. Figure 1. Awareness of IT skills frameworks ISM 3 SFIA 28% SFIAplus 22% CompTIA Tech Career Compass 16% Career Space T5Q APO (AIITS) SHRC NWCET 3% 2% Other 10% None 38% No reply 8% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 2.5 The data suggests that 15% of organisations represented are currently using an IT skills framework. ISM, SFIA, and SFIAplus all registered 4% usage. 3

4 2.6 One-third of respondents indicated that their organisation uses at least one of a list of IT professional products and services aimed at organisations. The most frequently used are as follows: 16% participate in a learning community on IT professional development (e.g. forums, newsletters); 1 use an IT training needs analysis package; 10% use an objective IT skills assessment package; 10% use an organisational IT skills gap analysis; 10% use an IT staff career development package; 9% use an IT job description creation facility. 2.7 Half the respondents suggested that their organisation would be interested in using at least one of the products or services listed. Four products/features attracted interest of around the 30% mark. These are: An objective IT skills assessment package (33%); An organisational IT skills gap analysis (32%); An IT staff career development package (3); An IT training needs analysis package (30%) of respondents indicated that there are individuals within their organisation who use an individual mentoring service. 20% use an individual career development package, and 14% use an individual competency assessment tool. 2.9 There is a good level of interest in the three products mentioned in section 2.8, with 29% saying that there are individuals within their organisation who would be interested in using an individual competency assessment tool, 27% would be interested in using an individual career development package, and 19% an individual mentoring service Nearly one in five organisations had spent 10,000 or more in the past twelve months on IT professional development products and services. Another one in five had spent nothing and one in three didn t know how much they had spent % of organisations currently run an IT professional development scheme of these (or 7% of all respondents) is accredited or recognised by an external body There was a good level of interest in training in professional IT career development schemes at 250 per delegate per day with 49% indicating that their organisation would be quite or very likely to purchase. Interest was significantly lower at the higher price points of 450 and There was moderate interest in consultancy for IT career development at 800 per day with 22% being quite or very likely to purchase. At the higher price points of 1,000 and 1,200 interest was low with only 8% and 4% respectively indicating interest. 4

5 2.15 The Head of IT is the champion for IT professional development in 54% of organisations and the budget holder in 47% of cases. The Head of HR is far less influential in this area with the corresponding figures being 6% for champion and 15% for budget holder A good cross-section of industries are represented in the survey with 2 from IT services/consultancy, 14% Education, 1 from Public Administration/Central/ Local Government, 1 Manufacturing, and 10% from other Business services. Figure 2. Industry worked in IT services/consultancy 2 Education 14% Public Administration/ Central/Local Government Manufacturing Other Business activities 10% 1 1 Financial/Banking/Insurance Transport, storage, and communication 7% 7% Wholesale and retail trade Health and social work 5% 5% Other 3% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% % of organisations represented have up to 250 employees and 42% have over 250 staff (3% gave no reply) % of organisations have fewer than 6 IT staff and one-quarter have over The approximate ratio of IT staff to total employees is 66 IT staff per 1,000 employees The greatest number of respondents are in the age group at 38%. This is followed by the group at 26% and the group at 2. Finally, 7% are 55 or over and 4% are under 25. 5

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