IT NVQ to boost technology skills

IT skills bodies the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and e-skills UK claim their Information Technology Qualification (ITQ) will boost technology skills when it becomes available this autumn.

The first ITQs have already been awarded as part of a pilot that will finish in the autumn.

ITQ, a module-based NVQ qualification based on the government's national occupational standards, is designed to raise the level of IT skills in the UK workforce across a wide range of industries.

The LSC and e-skills UK aim to see 100,000 employees achieve ITQ each year by 2006-7.

David Libbert, ITQ project director at LSC, explained that the draft model will go through approval with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority at the end of the pilot programme.

"It may be changed, but this only will be marginal," he said.

Libbert added that ITQ will produce cost and time savings for companies that offer it to their employees.

"We believe that after the pilot we will come up with some evidence - hard data - of how ITQ has improved business," he said.

ITQ can be linked to application-specific qualifications, such as the Microsoft Office Specialist accreditation.

"The future for ITQ will bring in the professional side too, with a crossover between things like basic Libbert added: spreadsheet [training], and networking and [more complex] applications," added Libbert.

"ITQ has been tailor-made by employers for employers, and recognises that IT is the new literacy requirement for the 21st century," said Karen Price, chief executive of e-skills UK, in a statement.

According to e-skills UK, 29 million people are below Level 2 practical IT skills - the basic level that employers require.

"Employers are the ones who have pushed for the ITQ. Previously, there were a lot of companies that weren't engaging with our offer; either the suppliers weren't there or the [training] product wasn't right," said Libbert.

"We now have a clear framework of standards so companies can work out what their employers should be capable of doing."

Some 3,500 individuals have been registered as part of the trials, held at selected IT centres of vocational excellence and public and private sector companies.