What is The Information Age?
One thing that is getting global interest now is the Skills Framework for the Information Age, as it provides comprehensive information about the capabilities of IT professionals, which is essential in this digital world. The sfia framework is also beneficial for organizations during recruitment, skills assessment, resource planning, career path framework, organizational improvement, and so on. Many industries in over 200 countries use the Information Age framework, including public, private, and not-for-profit organizations.
The framework is a vast structure that comprises three dimensions, which is the Levels of (generic) Responsibility and the Professional skills at up to 7 different levels each.
There are 7 generic responsibility levels in SFIA, and each describes the complexity, influence, autonomy, and business skills of the responsibility. These responsibilities are applicable in all professions and disciplines in the IT industry. On the other hand, the Skills Framework for the Information Age identifies 96 skills, and each of these professional skills comes with detailed descriptors. IT governance, Project management, Systems design, IT governance, Solution Architecture, and Business analysis are some of the skills included in SFIA.
The Information Age Framework Defines Skills and Not Jobs
One of the main objectives of SFIA is to help companies and individuals understand the jargon of designations. The technology industry has a multitude of job titles that it can get confusing. Sometimes, two people in the same industry have the same designation but are doing completely different tasks. There are also certain prefixes in the job titles that add to the confusion, for example, director of, associate, junior, senior, head of, VP, principal, etc.
What sfia does is turn complexity into simplicity by describing the responsibilities and skills needed at every level. By going beyond the job title, this helps a person understand what skills are necessary for a specific job, allowing them to assess their skills. It helps the professional find relevant IT qualifications, certifications, and training, whether in future career development, vacancy, or existing job. It is presented in a manner that describes the responsibilities, tasks, and activities needed to perform to reach the target level of skill.
The individual can decide what is best for them by utilizing the capability model, levels, and structure of SFIA. They can also determine if the training is about knowledge application or knowledge acquisition. The application of knowledge, in particular, is crucial in career development and improvement of performance. These may also cover qualifications, experience, and knowledge in business areas, specific technologies, and others.
SFIA Allows for Seamless Job Application
Many technology companies advertise jobs and vacancies include the SFIA levels and skills. By understanding their structure, the individual can get an insight into their own strengths. With this, they can easily spot relevant employment opportunities and help them be in the driving seat at the company they come to apply to. Some providers offer this competency management system software to organizations as a method of competency-based recruitment.
How Organizations Benefit from the Information Age?
An IT organization uses the Skills Framework for the Information Age to help them in managing people as well as solve critical problems that impact their employees. The framework can facilitate resourcing, outsourcing, workforce planning, succession planning, role design, performance management, and training and development. SFIA also helps an organization in up-skilling and re-skilling. Moreover, it standardizes job roles, functions as a baseline for abilities and skills, and reduces risks in IT projects.
On the whole, the aim of the Information Age is to reflect the current practices of the workforce, and not to speculate or dictate it. It gives IT professionals a common language to define responsibilities and expertise. The sfia framework is specifically designed for the technology industry and revised and updated constantly to stay useful, practical, and relevant.
