An online service launched in October aims to make it
easier for IT departments to identify training needs and skills
gaps in their IT workforce.
The SFIA Profiler service, provided by sector skills council
E-Skills UK, is designed to help managers automate the process of
mapping IT job descriptions to the Skills Framework for the
Information Age (SFIA).
"To try to do a skills gap analysis using bits of paper and
documents is always tricky," said Terry Hook, skills development
executive at E-Skills UK. "We created the service to allow managers
to create job roles in SFIA language and to allow staff to evaluate
against those defined job roles."
Pilot tests by Intelligent Finance and the Crown Prosecution
Service have shown that the service, based on a web portal, can
help employers identify hidden IT skills in their
organisations.
"They were able to uncover very quickly the skills they had in
their organisation that they were not aware of previously," said
Hook. "One of the biggest benefits was uncovering hidden
talent."
E-Skills is offering the SFIA Profiler web portal, with an
optional consultancy package, to companies for an annual fee per
user.
What is the SFIA Profiler?
The SFIA Profiler is an online skills management service, with
optional consultancy, that facilitates the implementation of the
Skills Framework for the Information Age.
By allowing employers to assess the competencies of IT staff,
the SFIA Profiler can be used to help identify skills gaps, create
job roles for staff recruitment and appraisals and help target
training. It can also generate management reports to inform
organisational and individual skills development.