SFIA and Professional Skills

 

UK professional skills within the sfia framework

The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) describes skills required by professionals in roles involving information and communications technology. With its collaborative development style involving open consultations, SFIA has become the globally accepted common language for the skills and competencies required in the digital world. This collaboration is formed from the various inputs from people with real practical experiences of skills management in corporate and educational environments.

 

First published in 2003, and regularly updated to remain in step with user needs and current thinking about information age capabilities, SFIA sets itself apart from others with more theoretical approaches. This has resulted in the adoption of SFIA by organizations and individuals in nearly 200 countries.

 

Nature

 

SFIA is one practical resource for people who manage or work in information systems-related roles of any type. It provides a common reference model in a two-dimensional framework consisting of skills on one axis and seven levels of responsibility on the other.

 

It describes professional skills at various levels of competence. It also describes generic levels of responsibility, in terms of Autonomy, Influence, Complexity and Business Skills.

SFIA is updated.

 

Language

UK professional skills within the sfia framework 

SFIA gives individuals and organizations a common language to define skill, abilities and expertise in a consistent way. Clear language without technical jargon and acronyms makes SFIA accessible to all. It solves some of the common translation issues that hamper communication and effective partnerships in organizations and mixed teams. It helps describe business needs and to assess your workforce’s ability to meet those needs.

 

Defining competencies

 

By defining core competencies as professional standards, SFIA helps organizations create roadmaps and development plans so their employees and they can recognize a pathway to success and improvement. With the widespread use of SFIA today, this consistent approach aligns the way recruitment seeks talent. This is the way an individual can demonstrate the right fit for the right role. Also, consistency means that SFIA works well for both large and small organizations.

 

Usage

 

By its nature, SFIA fits is with the way of doing things. It does not define organizational structures, role or jobs. Instead, it provides clear descriptions of skills and levels of responsibility. Its structure makes it a flexible resource which can be adopted to work in many HR systems and other people-management processes.

 

Target

 

By himself, an individual can cap his current skills and experience, identify their goals, and plan their professional development journey. Mapping higher education courses, qualifications, and training coursed help individuals choose their action to support their developments. SFIA helps in the creation of job/position descriptions and helps individuals to identify opportunities that match their skills.

 

Resource management

 

SFIA is used by organizations for overall resource management.  The quick use is to provide a baseline of the capability of the organization, departments, and teams and to identify skills gap. SFIA describes these skills and levels of competency needed to operate effectively. This is to ensure that individuals can do their jobs properly.

 

The structures of the organization, salary banding and benchmarking can all be aligned to SFIA. This facilitates the link to the skills and experience with focus on the required capabilities and value delivered.

UK professional skills within the sfia framework