BCS becomes The Chartered Institute for IT

Dave Bailey, Computing, Monday 21 September 2009 at 12:00:00

IT society re-brands itself, and unveils new professionalism and education
initiatives

The British Computer Society (BCS) has
re-branded itself as "BCS ? The Chartered Institute for IT", rolling out a new
logo, a re-designed web site and a new focus for the UK's oldest IT society.

The BCS unveiled a raft of new initiatives, designed to enhance its value to
its members, the IT profession, the academic community and the general public.

"We're announcing a complete transformation of BCS into The Chartered
Institute for IT, and we're going to change how we present ourselves, focusing
on the chartered aspect," said BCS chief executive David Clarke.

Clarke said BCS had completed significant research inyo what the IT
profession wants from a professional body, given that there are a million people
working in IT in the UK, acknowledging that BCS membership was still only "a
small percentage of that million people.

But encouraging employers to accept the need for staff to attain Chartered IT
Professional (CITP) status has been and will continue to prove difficult, said
Clarke.

"These people work in a certain way, they have a certain level of knowledge,
and that they operate to a code of conduct ? but that doesn't say anything about
their competence," he said.

If CITP could give employers such information, "then you've got something,"
said Clarke.

BCS has been developing its chartered standard for the past three years, and
has gone down the road of assessing people's competency. BCS will have a
register and employers will be able to ask if the registered person has the
claimed level of competency.

BCS will have an online application process for CITP status ready in early
October, but the site is still being tested said Clarke.

CITP will be based on the Skills Framework
for the Information Age (SFIA) and Clarke said the UK government would be
using SFIA as the basis of all their IT-related work.

"We've tied CITP to level five [out of seven] of this skills architecture,"
he said.

BCS said successful applicants would be issued with a Certificate of Current
Competence valid for five years, after which they will be a requirement to
undertake revalidation to acquire a new certificate.

There was also an intention to create a new Academy of Computing to provide
an integrated and coherent approach to advancing IT and computing across
education, research and business. Further to that was a strategy for expanding
its global reach internationally with an ability to offer its qualifications to
new countries, including the Asia-Pacific region, Germany and Spain.

Clarke said a further goal is to transform the value BCS offered its members
and other key communities.

"Over the next 12 months, we will introduce a wide range of new
qualifications, products and services designed to do this," he said.

Clarke said the new services will include a member networking facility, "
based on the latest Web 2.0 technologies," a new re-designed BCS web site and a
revamped job website - BCSrecruit.com ? together with, other career development
tools designed to help members boost their job prospects.

Clark said BCS is unveiling a new strategy focusing on five key objectives.

"[These are:] bridging the gap between education, practice and research;
giving IT practitioners the professional development and career support they
deserve; informing public policy on how IT can contribute to society; ensuring
everyone benefits from IT; and championing the global IT profession," he said.

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2249803/bcs-becomes-chartered-institute