News in Brief

e-skills UK helps employers manage the skills of IT professionals with new SFIA Profiler

At the Annual Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) Conference in London on Thursday 10 November, e-skills UK demonstrated how the new SFIA Profiler can help employers to drive productivity and competitiveness in their business through the effective management of IT professionals' skills.

Assessing and managing the advanced skills and competencies of IT professionals can appear a complex challenge for IT, Business and HR managers. Yet companies are increasingly recognising the importance of understanding and developing their IT professional skills pool for the success of their business. The user-friendly online skills management service of e-skills UK's SFIA Profiler provides a simple solution for managers. SFIA Profiler is based on the employer-developed IT skills framework SFIA, which is the de facto standard for the UK.

Developed following extensive consultation with employers, the SFIA Profiler is a cost-effective online skills management service, supported by optional consultancy. It enables the easy implementation of version 3 of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), which was launched at the Conference. SFIA is a well-established framework that provides a common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems (IS) making use of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies). By allowing employers to assess the competencies of IT professionals, the SFIA Profiler can be used to help identify skills gaps, create specific job roles for staff recruitment and appraisals and inform targeted training solutions. The system also generates a suite of management reports to inform organisational and individual skills development.

Valerie Mann, IT Resource Manager for Intelligent Finance said, "A skills management service that simplifies the assessment of IT professionals' competencies is just what UK businesses need. In addition, e-skills UK SFIA Profiler is easy to set up and administer, bringing high functionality within reach of organisations from small to large."

For details, go to check the full press release and visit www.e-skills.com/sfiaprofiler.  

e-skills UK would like to thank the DTI for their support in the development of the SFIA Profiler service.

Posted on 10 Nov 2005