IFIP – OECD – WITSA

Joint Working Conference

“Meeting Global IT Skills Needs – the Role of Professionalism”

Some 35 experts on IT Skills and Professionalism from 14 countries met at Gorse Hill, Woking, UK on 25^th – 27^th October 2002. The conference was sponsored by IFIP, OECD, WITSA, supported by BCS, CEPIS, CompTIA, Intellect, Birkbeck University of London and SEARCC and in cooperation with ACM, CIPS and IEEE-CS.

Eleven papers were given by an international panel of speakers focussing on three key aspects of IT skills needs – demand, supply and constraints. Participants also exchanged views and experiences in extended working group sessions.

At the closing session, participants agreed to continue their work by agreeing to share best practice relating to skills issues, for example by addressing inclusiveness issues, and specifically (with contributions from the organisations indicated) to:

• develop a high level reference model covering groups including IT professionals, IT practitioners and others (BCS, NGI, ACM, ACS, e-skills UK):

- to identify the differences in obligations associated with different types of work;

- to assist the closer matching of employer requirements with educational provision

• develop an inventory of IT professional registration arrangements in support of inter-national mobility (IFIP);

• explore options for extending international equivalencing of IT qualifications to support international mobility (drawing, for example, on experience with the Washington Accord) (ACM/IEEE-CS/CIPS);

• explore the value of greater alignment of occupational frameworks internationally for different purposes (with different customers) (CompTIA), including:

- Labour Market statistic-gathering (for policy-makers, planners) (CEPIS);

- Career opportunity clarification (for prospective entrants);

- Quality Assurance (for competence area identification and credential validation);

- Career Progression Management (for individuals and employers);

- International mobility (use in relation to immigration; handling regulation and employer hiring)

- Clarify “IT Professional” (see Annex A), “IT Profession” and “IT Practitioner” (IFIP).

Champions for these actions will co-ordinate work, contribute to a progress report by end April 2003 and recommend whether to hold a follow-up meeting.

Glossary of Organisations

ACM (US) Association for Computing Machinery

(Education Board)

ACS Australian Computer Society

BCS British Computer Society

(Qualifications and Standards Board)

CEPIS Council of European Professional Informatics Societies

CompTIA Computing Technology Industry Association

CIPS Canadian Information Processing Society

CompTIA The Computing Technology Industry Association

e-Skills UK (UK) Sector Skills Council for Information and Communications

Technologies

IEEE-CS (US) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society

IFIP International Federation of Information Processing

(Working Group 3.4)

Intellect (UK) I T, Telecommunications and Electronics Association

(e-Skills UK)

NGI Netherlands Informatics Society

(Nederlands Genootschap voor Informatica)

OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

DEELSA Directorate of Education, Employment, Labour

and Social Affairs

DSTI Directorate of Science, Technology and Industry

SEARCC South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation

WITSA World Information Technology and Services Alliance

Annex A

IFIP has defined the term Professional in the following way:

Professionals:

q publicly ascribe to a published code of ethics;

q are aware of and have access to a well-documented current body of knowledge relevant to the domain of practice;

q have a mastery of the body of knowledge at the baccalaureate level;

q have a minimum of the equivalent of two years supervised experience before operating unsupervised;

q are familiar with current best practice and relevant proven methodologies;

q are able to provide evidence of their maintenance of competence.