The British Computer Society is rebranding itself and
changing direction to meet the demands of modern IT
professionals.
Chief executive David Clarke says the changing skills demanded
of IT professionals and the increasingly pervasive nature of
technology means the society has to morph into something new.
This week the organisation
announced a range of measures it hopes will bring it up to date
with where the profession is heading. There are new assessment
criteria for senior IT staff, a new academy for updating skills,
and a series of public engagement programmes to increase the
public's understanding of the profession.
Clarke says business people will never spend enough time
learning about and understanding what technology can do and it is
increasingly incumbent on technology staff to do the
explaining.
"Skills sets are definitely changing, but I would say not
quickly enough. Increasingly the profession has to be involved in
how IT is applied rather than how it is developed. It is the
bridging of the gap between the technology knowledge and the
business knowledge. You are not going to get business people
spending enough time to understand what the technology can do, so
IT must understand what the business needs."
Clarke acknowledges the industry faces some uphill battles in
the coming years surrounding policies like Digital Britain and the
realities of universal access to broadband services. There is no
question broadband access is not good enough around the country,
and things need to be fixed if they are going to deliver that
policy, he says.
"It is a major issue because more and more of what we do uses
technology; the government is putting a huge amount of money into
providing things online but so many can't access them."
But he adds, "It is not our remit to fix it - all we can do is
advise government."
The IT profession is still young and needs clearer career
ladders for people to climb, Clarke says, and the BCS hopes to
bring a level of clarity to the senior echelons of the
industry.
"When we talked to employers, they said what we have is too
generic, and does not tell them what they need to know," Clarke
says. "If a person is coming from outside the company, there is no
way of assessing their competency and skills. Employers are looking
for a way of independent assessment of competency at senior level,
not just basic education or understanding. For me, this will become
successful when jobs for a certain level all have chartered status
required in them."