A new pan-European qualification scheme for people
entering the profession and IT specialists seeking continuing
professional development is being launched in the UK by the
BCS.
The European certification of informatics professionals (EUCIP) has
been developed to be an independent, internationally recognised
scheme for IT specialists in the same way that the European
computer driving licence is a standard test of IT user
skills.
The EUCIP syllabus covers IT system planning, building and
operation. The core syllabus takes about 400 hours of training,
with a mixture of classroom courses, managed study and
assessments.
After achieving the core certificate, people will be able to gain
more advanced qualifications in specialist areas such as network
administration, software development and business analysis.
"The EUCIP core certificate certifies that the holder has a
multi-disciplinary understanding of basic IT issues, ranging from
IT strategy to system maintenance," the BCS said.
The planning part of the syllabus, for example, covers more than 40
topics, including business processes, in-house development versus
contracting out, project management, communicating with users, and
copyright.
The building portion of the course covers system development tools,
data modelling, software design, testing, documentation, and web
page design.
"In the short term, the goal is to attract new practitioners into
IT from other professions and from schools and universities, and
also career changers, people with significant IT responsibilities,
and non-qualified junior IT practitioners with narrow or scant IT
background," the BCS said.
"The long-term goal is to offer guidance and services to all IT
professionals and practitioners and to support their needs for
lifelong learning and continuous professional development."
BCS chief executive David Clarke said, "More than two thirds of the
UK's workforce use IT but a significant number of people supporting
them in IT departments still do not have any broad-based IT
training or certification. EUCIP will be essential for candidates
who want to document their competencies according to a European
standard.
"By complementing the existing internationally recognised short
course vocational qualifications offered by the BCS Information
Systems Examinations Board, the BCS professional examination, and
the European computer driving licence, EUCIP will underline the
society's role as the champion of the nation's computer literacy
and skills programme and its commitment to delivering lifelong
learning and IT professional development."
The appeal of independent, international qualifications has been
demonstrated by the European computer driving licence, for which
almost one million end-users have registered in the UK, and the BCS
IS Examinations Board, which has more than 19,000 IT people taking
its certificates and diplomas every year.
Full details, including the syllabus and sample tests
www.bcs.org/eucip