MANAGEMENT TOOLS CERTIFICATION How can Train

MANAGEMENT How can Train
to Gain benefit IT training? 18
TOOLS Open source options may
help stretch tight budgets 20
CERTIFICATION The MCSE is
on its way out 22
IITT NEWS Top dogs in IT
training receive gongs 32
Spring 2008
www.bcs.org/ittraining
The right mix
The LSE has created courseware and add-ons to
meet the needs of both students and staff p14
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Contents
12
28
20
22
News
Features
06 Update
12 Being Keen wins the day
Conversion funding proposals
HEFCE has suggested cutting
support for IT conversion
courses, which BCS believes could
aggravate skills shortages.
Training as motivation Almost half
of staff surveyed said they would
be more likely to stay in a job if
their employer offered training.
07 Supplier briefs
eLN offers free associateship
The eLearning Network is offering
free associate membership
under new chair Clive Shepherd.
32 Institute of IT Training
Showcase for best in class
The IITT Training Awards highlighted
the industry at its best.
08 BCS I&TTSG
Ethical in training The next
meeting will focus on how to
incorporate ethics into IT training.
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Rebecca had to convince users of
the value of a new system as part
of her role as project trainer.
14 LSE revamps courseware
As courseware underpins IT training
for staff and students at the LSE,
materials have to be fit for purpose.
34
26 Very much their business
Business analysts often need to
prove evidence of their skills, which
ISEB qualifications can help provide.
28 Back in the frame
New certification in mainframes
aims to give the profession a boost.
Trainer-to-trainer
11 IT failure, social networks
17 Not sufficiently accessible
Is your courseware accessible to
people with disabilities?
18 Gain from the government
How can IT training benefit from
Train to Gain funds?
20 Think open source
Open source is an approach worth
considering, particularly for
informal training.
Advice, experience, and thoughts.
Self study
30 Book reviews
Including software testing, virtual
honeypots, IT trainers and execs.
Comment
08 Alan Bellinger: pressure
Expectations are high this year
but budgets are low.
22 Microsoft certs overhaul
The MCSE is being replaced with
certification testing specific skills,
while users face changes too.
34 Clive Shepherd: e-learning
Two tiers are evolving in e-learning
material development.
Spring 2008 IT Training 03
Editor’s intro
Don’t overload the
old grey matter
In the last few weeks, I’ve kept
stumbling across the idea that you
should suit your delivery method to
the learner’s needs, including those of
their brain. The general theme has
been that technology can create great
training in some cases, but there’s no
point creating, for instance, a great
game, if it’s not going to achieve the
desired result.
This theme is addressed by Clive Shepherd in his column. He
talks about how developing e-learning materials is dividing into
two tiers (traditional, expensive and thorough, versus rapid) and
how which route you choose depends on fitness for purpose.
Several speakers at the recent Learning Technologies conference
pointed out that delivery methods for training depends on what
you are trying to achieve. Gordon Bull of Learning Forte
suggested that mobile learning could be highly useful if you’re
out in a forest and can actually see the trees that you are learning
about, but for a whole MBA, a learner could find a small screen
somewhat frustrating.
Dr Itiel Dror of Southampton University gave a powerful
presentation on the brain and how it should influence you when
designing training. He emphasised that learning should be
constructed around how the brain can process information and
how much it can take in. You have to be careful not to include
too many learning objects and, when designing training, you
need to make sure the learner interprets it in the way you
intended. You’ll be able to read more about what he said in the
March issue of the new IT Training e-monthly.
If you haven’t received an IT Training e-monthly (launched this
January), that is likely to be because we haven’t got a record of
your current email address. If you’re a direct subscriber (rather
than receiving it via IITT or BCS membership), you can update
your email and other contact details at: www.turpindistribution.com/coa. You’ll find your unique subscriber
number with the sheet accompanying this issue. Contact the
IITT or BCS to update your email address if your subscription is
via one of them.
Editor
Managing editor
Art editor
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04 IT Training Spring 2008
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Update
A round-up of the latest news and developments for IT training professionals
Funding for IT conversion
courses is to be axed under
proposals by the Higher
Education Funding Council for
England (HEFCE). The body is
proposing withdrawing
funding for students who want
to study at a level lower or
equal to where they already
hold a qualification. A small
number of subjects are exempt,
but these do not include IT.
The resulting higher fees
would, in the opinion of the
BCS, discourage mature and
part-time students with first
degrees from undertaking IT
conversion courses, exacerbating
the industry’s skills shortage.
The need to recruit graduates
with non-IT degrees was also
highlighted in research by
e-skills UK. Its report ‘IT &
Telecoms Insights 2008’
indicates that only about a fifth
of the 140,000 new entrants a
year that are needed to fill IT
and telecoms job roles will
come directly from education,
while more than half will
transfer in from non-IT and
telecoms occupations.
If current trends continue,
there will be 70,000 unfilled IT
positions across Europe per
year, according to a recent
report by the Council of
European Professional
Informatics Societies (CEPIS).
There could be as few as
180,000 entrants into a
European IT industry requiring
250,000 practitioners by 2010.
To avoid shortages of IT
practitioners, CEPIS suggests
06 IT Training Spring 2008
Freelancers are being squeezed: rates under pressure
Rates for a day’s training delivery are continuing to be squeezed, according to a a
survey by TrainerBase. The decline is partially attributed to an oversupply of poor
trainers prepared to work for under £200 a day. The investigation also found that male
trainers earn more than their female counterparts and that men dominate IT training.
more collaborative work
between universities and
industry, more connections
between ICT industry-based
certifications and formal
education and vocational
training courses, plus more
consistent training.
22 per cent of IT and telecoms
companies in the UK already
report difficulties in attracting
applicants with the right skills
according to e-skills UK’s
report, which gained input from
more than 4,000 employers.
The research also found that
40 per cent of IT professionals
are currently employed in
managerial and strategy roles.
The majority of employment
growth for IT and telecoms
professionals will be in IT
management, IT strategy and
software professional roles with
particular demand for project
management, systems
architecture, business process,
change management, security
and risk management. There
will be an increasing need for
customer and business oriented
skills, as well as advanced
technical capability.
Users too will require IT
skills at more advanced levels,
the research shows. 77 per cent
of the UK’s 27 million
workforce use IT in their
everyday jobs.
Even the government is
suffering from IT skills
shortages, with it being
obliged to outsource some IT
work, according to Computer
Weekly. The Cabinet Office
CIO John Suffolk reportedly
said that central government IT
employs around 55,000 people,
but that the government
collaborates with between
55,000 and 85,000 IT
professionals in the
private sector.
Employers who have found
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Update
good IT staff are being urged to
consider training and
development to help
retention and morale. 46
per cent of employees surveyed
on behalf of the Learning and
Skills Council (LSC) said
training would make them
more likely to stay with a
company. 45 per cent of
employees would feel more
valued, and 46 per cent
more motivated.
Despite this, only 40 per cent
of those surveyed were likely to
ask their employers for training
to help develop their roles.
54 per cent of respondents
said they would rather improve
their current role with just 16
per cent preferring to
start afresh.
An earlier report by the
Department for Education and
Skills found that less than one
per cent of employers would
increase training to encourage
staff retention or morale. Of
those who did train their staff,
4 in 10 employers reported an
increase in staff retention.
More recently, the government
has announced the members of
the UK Commission for
Employment and Skills, the
establishment of which was a
key recommendation of the
Leitch report. The appointments
include Larry Hirst, chief
executive of IBM UK and Ioan
Morgan, principal of
Warwickshire College.
The government has also
taken the next step towards
establishing an independent
regulator of qualifications and
tests in England by publishing a
consultation document. The
consultation runs until 10
March 2008. For details or to
respond, see the DFES website.
E-skills UK will hold a oneday ITQ conference and
exhibition on 29 May, in
Westminster. It is aimed at
training providers.
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Supplier briefs
Join eLN for free
The eLearning Network
(eLN) has introduced a new,
free associate membership
scheme. The eLN, a
professional association of
users and developers, aims to
encourage anyone interested
in any form of elearning,
whether as a learning or
development specialist,
designer, supplier, consultant,
tutor, student or academic to
become part of a new
community to share
experiences, best practice,
issues and concerns.
Anyone involved in
e-learning can register
through the eLN’s
re-designed website.
It has a new logo too,
following Clive Shepherd
recent appointment as eLN’s
new chairman and Neil
Lasher as deputy chair.
Shepherd is an independent
consultant and Lasher
runs Trainer1.
R&D on visualisation
Three organisations have
joined forces to work on a
R&D project to develop the
next generation of digital
learning software for schools,
further and higher education
establishments.
Bridgeman Education, the
Open University’s Knowledge
Media Institute and Lexara are
developing a solution that
builds on web 2.0 and artificial
intelligence technologies to
allow teachers and trainers to
collect, organise, experiment
and interact with multimedia
assets.
The government’s
Technology Strategy Board is
providing funding of £784,000
towards the £1.9 million
project, code-named SILVER.
Server 2008 courses...
With the launch of Microsoft
Server 2008 this February,
Learning Tree and Firebrand
Training are starting up courses
to prepare staff for the change.
Firebrand Training, formerly
the Training Camp, is offering
three new courses aimed at
providing those familiar with
Server 2003 with a
comprehensive view of new
features included in Server
2008. These range from a oneday ‘first look’ course to a sixday programme to obtain the
Windows Server 2008 MCTS
qualification.
Learning Tree is offering a
four-day Server 2008 Comprehensive Hands-On
Introduction course. It is
targeted at those who are new
to Windows and those
migrating from other operating
systems, particularly system
and network administrators,
support personnel,
programmers preparing
enterprise applications and help
desk personnel.
…and practice exams
Transcender, a part of Kaplan
IT Learning and exam
preparation software provider
for IT certification tests, has
announced the release of
practice exams for Microsoft’s
new Windows Server 2008
certification track.
Transcender practice exams
simulate the live certification
exam to help IT professionals
assess their exam preparedness
through challenging questions,
detailed answer explanations,
and thorough references.
Microsoft solely online
Retendo, the UK’s first
Microsoft Certified Partner for
Learning Solutions to be run
exclusively online, was
launched in February. Retendo
uses Microsoft Official
Distance Learning (MODL)
courseware to blend highly
interactive, live, synchronous
instructor sessions with selfpaced learning materials,
including real-world practical
exercises on live kit.
Training on VoiP
Vocale has released a new
online training and
accreditation service for the
telephony protocol, SIP. The
SIP School is aimed at equipping
VoIP professionals with the
skills to work with SIP devices
and SIP Trunks. The online
course is continually updated as
the SIP protocol evolves.
Simulated security exams
(ISC)2 has launched an online
self-assessment tool,
studISCope for individuals to
assess their knowledge of the
(ISC)2 CBK®, a taxonomy of
information security topics that
serves as the foundation for all
(ISC)2 certifications.
Hojgaard departs
Frank Hojgaard, managing
director of Global Knowledge
UK & Ireland, is stepping down
to return to Scandinavia.
Spring 2008 IT Training 07
Update
Alan Bellinger
BCS Information &
Dealing with Technology Training
the pressure Specialist Group
Next meeting: Putting ethics into IT training
This year is going to be far
more difficult than the ones
we’ve had recently.
There are four critical trends
and they’re totally ‘out of sync’
with each other.
Let’s start with the four
challenges:
Tight budgets with a ‘more
for less’ management
expectation – you will get to
the point that you’re thinking
‘was it ever different?’
Pressure on system roll-outs
– 2008 is a critical year for new
system roll-outs with pressure
on you to ensure that they go
smoothly.
The incorporation of
informal interventions in the
expectations of L&D – this is
the year of how, not whether.
The need for new
approaches in a risk averse
climate – the key opportunity
that all of this creates is that
you (and your stakeholders)
will be looking for reassurance
that new approaches won’t
represent risk to their
operations.
On the first point, there are
few budgets that can be
considered safe for the next 12
months, and management will
be expecting you to do
everything you can to squeeze
extra out of your residual pot.
Do you put most of the
squeeze on internal provision,
or on your external service
providers?
As competition’s going to be
very tight this year, you can
probably expect the latter
to be as accommodating as
the former.
08 IT Training Spring 2008
Regarding the second
challenge, there’s quite a
backlog of new system roll-outs
as we go into this year:
Office 2007 is the first to
consider – have you fully sized
the training task?
Traditional areas
(ERP/CRM/SCM) – these rollouts continue apace and they
create a substantial training
load as they change processes
and job roles; the training is far
more than an issue of which
buttons to push.
Emerging applications
(performance management/
business intelligence/portfolio
management) – these new
‘killer apps’ are growing in
importance and most users are
finding that the training
requirements are unique to
them – so there’s little generic
material to fall back on.
Verticals applications – most
areas have critical applications
that are specific to their sector.
Healthcare is a great example.
The key issue here is that
management expectations will
be high whilst funding will
be low.
My suggestion is to ensure
that you create a comprehensive
mix of formal and informal
learning interventions, which
also covers the third challenge.
And here’s a final thought
to get your creative
thinking going.
For years we’ve referred to
blended learning as a
combination of e-learning and
classroom. A better definition
would be a combination of
formal and informal learning.
Ethics and IT, from the point of
view of the trainer, will be the
subject of a presentation by
Penny Duquenoy, manager,
British Computer Society
Ethics Forum at the next
I&TTSG meeting on 8 May.
She will aim to show how ethics
can be fun, as well as crucially
important to IT professionals.
Ethics is bound to any
concept of professionalism and
is formalised in the Code of
Conduct of any professional
body. However, pinning down
ethics, recognising ethical
issues, and putting abstract
codes of conduct into context
can be difficult for those
working in IT, where technology
is the ‘tool of the trade’ and the
issues are not evident.
Embedding the notion of
ethics within IT training can
appear to be a challenging task
but in practice can be
stimulating both for the trainer
and the trainee, generating
discussion, encouraging
participation and building
confidence as well as informing
good practice.
Penny is a senior lecturer at
Middlesex University, London,
teaching ethical, legal and
professional issues to
undergraduates and is active
internationally in issues of ICT,
ethics and social accountability.
Next meeting: 4 March 2008,
6.30 pm, at the BCS London
Office. AGM: 8 May 2008,
6.30 pm, at the BCS London
Office. Followed by a
presentation and socialising
with drinks and snacks.
www.bcs.org/ittsg
I&TTSG secretary
Bruce Nicholls
Profile
Bruce is a senior analyst and
trainer for Bryan Cave, an
international law firm, working
in its central London office.
He started his career some 20
years ago on IBM System/370
mainframes running CICS and
programming in COBOL.
He has always straddled both
sides of the technical and user
communities. Now providing
IT training and support for the
European offices, he works
closely with the international
training team within Bryan
Cave, developing bespoke elearning content and training
courses.
He is also a qualified Prince2
practitioner in project
management and is on the
committee of the BCS project
management specialist group.
[email protected]
www.bcs.org/ittraining
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Congratulations
to the winners of
Training Company of the Year
Firebrand Training
Training Department of the Year
Cadbury Schweppes
Trainer of the Year
Matt Leaver, Verridian
Internal Training Project of the Year Cadbury Schweppes
Training Manager of the Year Jacquie Rayner, HM Prison Service
External Training Project of the Year Afiniti & Network Rail
Training Department of the Year (Public Sector) West Sussex County Council
e-Learning Project of the Year Line Communications & MOD
Freelance Trainer of the Year Ryan Thompson
Learning Centre of the Year Firebrand Training
Learning Facilities of the Year The NTI Birmingham
Staff Development Programme of the Year Rotherham MBC
Colin Corder Award for outstanding contribution to IT Training John Leighfield CBE
The IT Training Awards are the most prestigious in the industry providing national
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Sponsored by
Trainer to trainer
On the ground
What should you do if there is an IT failure when you are delivering a course? We asked
trainers to share advice and guidance for when that occurs.
Unfortunately, this may happen
to one or all of us at many
points during our training
careers. Over the past 20 years
the route I have followed is to
stay calm, and not panic or
appear flustered. Apologise
politely to the delegate it is
affecting, without being overeffusive, as this will inspire
confidence in the fact that you
will sort it out effectively.
To ensure the course is not
disrupted, ask the delegate to sit
with another and tell the group
that, in order to maintain
continuity, you will use the
break to get IT in to sort out
the problem. When you are
tying up the course at the end,
do not refer to it, you have
already sorted it out and it was
not a problem. Delegates will
remember the way you dealt
with the issue, not the fact it
happened in the first place.
Annette Scott, NPfIT training
manager, North Mersey Health
Informatics Service
Firstly, never panic. We all
know things break, and
working in the IT industry we
have all experienced some form
of failure, be it hardware,
software or even human-error.
If the problem cannot be
resolved in a few seconds I
would suggest approaching it in
one of two ways.
If the problem has happened
somewhere close to a break, call
it then. If the failure has
occurred during a presentation
session, don’t hold it up.
Continue with the presentation
until the next break and resolve
the issue then.
I think the worst thing you
can do is let everybody sit
around while you take action or
develop a plan – long wait
periods always seem to make it
worse for the students and
people quickly get restless.
You’ll also feel under more
pressure if you’re trying to fix a
problem with an audience.
Paul Gregory, principal
technologist, QA-IQ
I would add that we should
know who the support contact
is and how to get in touch with
them before the failure, not
when it happens.
Jooli Atkins, Matrix FortyTwo
Next issue
What advice would you give
on using visuals, such as
PowerPoint slides?
Breaking developments
What effect will social networks have on training and to what degree do you think training
will integrate with these communities moving forward?
I feel that in the short term
social networking delivers a
communication mechanism to
almost replace bulletin boards
and information forums.
Because of the community
aspect of these sites we will
start to get communities
formed that are based on
hobbies and skill sets.
I would expect to see detailed
training presentations being
uploaded so people can learn
how to achieve tasks while
watching and listening.
Today, on sites such as
YouTube, you can find small
video presentations on ‘how-to’
achieve simple tasks. Next,
these will start to appear on a
request basis.
www.bcs.org/ittraining
So, like a forum, you will post
a question and somebody will
respond back with a VID-TO
to show you how to complete
you task.
We then have to wait for a
social networking site offering
video conferencing, and then
we may get master classes
presented.
master class is both reputable
and knowledgeable.
There can be nothing worse
than social networking sites full
of well meaning individuals, the
like of which we sometimes get
in classrooms – there is always
one that can show someone a
‘better way’ – and they can be
disconcerting for the user who
wants to learn in their own way
Paul Gregory, principal
and not adopt bad habits from
technologist, QA-IQ
others.
Having said that, there are a
Expanding on the above
number of such people who can
comments, I think that we need provide a useful support
to look at the validity of the
mechanism for less confident
source when considering their
users.
usefulness for training.
We need to make sure that
Jooli Atkins,
the ‘master’ giving an online
Matrix FortyTwo
Next issue
What opportunities are
there to use podcasting in
training? Are these currently
exploited to their full and is
it likely to form part of the
training mix long-term?
For more comments, check
out the website:
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Trainers: this is your page –
please send in your views for
the next issue to the editor:
[email protected]
Advisers: Jooli Atkins, Matrix
FortyTwo and Dave Britt, BCS
Trainer of the Year 2006.
Spring 2008 IT Training 11
Interview Rebecca Keen
Being keen reaps rewards
As IT project trainer for the City Of York Council, Rebecca Keen ran the training programme
for a new tool for the adult social services department. Her success and enthusiasm
earned her the title of BCS IT Trainer of the Year 2007, sponsored by Training Synergy.
How did you get into IT
training?
After a degree in education with
English studies, my first job was in
quality data management within a
NHS practice. In addition to my
normal work, I got involved in
ECDL training, which was offered to
all staff. This was my first
experience of practical training,
other than workshops at uni.
I moved to the council in York to
a role in statistics and data management. I managed to build some
training into that job, explaining
how to use statistics to colleagues.
In June 2006 a job came up as a
project trainer within the IT
department at the council. The
department was going to replace a
one-off legacy database used by
adult social services with a new tool
to help practitioners record their
work. I got the job.
What did the project
trainer role involve?
I had to
understand
how,
for
example,
occupational
therapists
and social
workers
were using
the system
It covered everything from analysis
through to building materials to
delivering the training. The aim was
to bring IT to the forefront of social
services work and get staff using
computers to be more productive.
Ultimately, the target was to improve
outcomes for the customer.
I had to train 200 plus users of the
system, from front-line social work
staff to director level and into teams.
Different teams used different parts
Rebecca Keen
of the system, and had their own
discrete processes for which I had to
cater. I had to understand how, for
example, occupational therapists and
social workers were using the
system.
12 IT Training Spring 2008
I was based in the IT department,
which was integral to support my
role. It was important for me to have
input into the system’s development
and be keyed into the nuances of
implementation, which I may have
missed if the role had been within HR.
Did users have good IT
skills before the project?
There was a mix in both IT and
role-related skills. Some people were
very skilled and experienced in
social work but did not have great
IT skills and vice versa.
There had been no specific
training for the old social care IT
system, partly because they were
waiting for the new system, but
many of them had done ECDL.
Some users had a negative view of
their skills, and I had to work hard
to make them more positive.
There was a general resistance by
users to a new IT solution but its
introduction was necessary to meet
government targets and be in line
with new developments, such as the
electronic health record.
The users were wonderful because
although I often had to explain why
they needed to use the system, they
never said ‘no’ outright to learning.
How did you approach
the training task for
the project?
When I joined the team, the IT
department had already purchased
the system – Frameworki – from
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Rebecca Keen Interview
Corelogic. It’s an off-the-shelf product
but highly customisable and user
friendly. Using the system is about
picking up good practice in social
services and mirroring it in IT.
My first step for the training
project was to run taster sessions –
from June to September 2006. I
mocked up the processes and got
groups together across the council
and social services. The idea was to
build interest in the system and let
them know what was coming, and
see that it wasn’t frightening. And it
allowed us to collect feedback.
I then carried out a training needs
analysis of IT and operational skills.
Initially there were some negative
responses, for example some people
said they couldn’t type. I also looked
at the current social work recording
processes, and how often they were
completed, building these into the
training development and delivery.
The basic training was the same
for everyone, classroom-based and
day-long. It was about getting used
to the look and feel of using the
system. In the afternoon they did
hands-on exercises and, at the end of
the day completed quizzes.
The self-directed training – with
an advisor on hand – was in three
sessions, one and a half hours in
length each. The self-directed
element was to try and reduce
impact on the business and
practitioners’ time.
The process-based training was
again classroom-based for one day.
We used a lot of classroom-based
training because we could go into
explicit detail while providing
learners with someone to turn to. As
the principal trainer I delivered
most of the training – over 92 per
cent of sessions – with some help
from two project workers.
How did you learn to use
the system?
At the start I attended a train the
trainer day. But after that it was a lot
about working with the project team
and the principal consultant from
Corelogic. This provided us with a
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Project timeline for social services training programme
June 06: IT project trainer appointed
March-May 07: self-directed training
June-Sept 06: taster courses
and planning
May-July 07: process-based training
Oct-Dec 06: training needs analysis
and course building
July 07 onwards: evaluation and
follow-up sessions
Dec 07: BCS Trainer of the Year Award
Jan-March 07: basic training
ghost outline of training material
that we customised. The only way to
fully learn the system was to use it. I
was also close to the project officer
building the system and got involved
in discussions about how it would
reflect processes and in testing.
How did you evaluate the
training’s success?
In the initial phase it was about
whether it was meeting the needs of
users, ie questions about whether
they felt confident using it.
In the project plan, I scheduled in
three monthly and six monthly
reviews after the implementation. I
produced exception reports, to
identify what was going well, and
then planned follow-up sessions for
key parts that users found difficult.
What made the training
a success?
I think it was due to flexibility,
patience and empathy.
It was about appreciating that
users had never seen such systems,
nor had anyone ever made such
demands on them. It was important
to talk to people about how they
would be using it, and bear this in
mind in developing courses. It
helped to step back and see that this
was an important change for people.
Getting the design and structure
of courses finished before the
courses started was important, as
was being able to update them as we
went along in response to evaluations.
I also worked really hard and went
the extra mile. When someone
struggled or required one to one
training, I tried to ensure they got
It was
important to
talk to
people
about how
they would
be using it,
and bear
this in
mind in
developing
courses
Rebecca Keen
the training and support needed to
best use the system.
How did you work out your
approach, given that you
were new to the job?
Part of it was taken from studying
education, where I had learnt that
successful delivery is about
planning, planning, and more
planning. I also got help and advice
from Corelogic, my manager and IT
training books. I hadn’t studied
training needs analysis, so I looked
for examples of good practice on the
web, and via the IITT and BCS. I
also listened closely to users.
What did winning the BCS
IT Trainer of the Year
Award mean to you?
It was amazing, and I was really
pleased to win for the whole team,
although it wouldn’t have meant
anything if the project had not been
a success too.
It’s been wonderful because it
means I’ve met a lot of people. It’s
not always easy to meet other IT
trainers when you work in a council.
It’s also led to me joining the BCS,
which has opened up a world I
didn’t know existed, for example
tools, such as the competency
framework, SFIA.
What next?
I’m currently working as a
consultant for Corelogic, as the
commuting to York got too much
for me, but I loved the job at York
and training. I’d like to learn more
about classroom training, blended
learning and what makes it good.
Spring 2008 IT Training 13
Case study Courseware at the LSE
Communication underpins
courseware’s success
The IT Services department at the
LSE therefore runs IT training
courses in Microsoft Office skills for
its 1,800 staff and 9,000 students.
The staff are offered instructor-led
courses, while students have the
chance to attend self-paced
workshops – for more information
Analysing numbers and drawing
the non-glamorous nature of such
on course structure, see box below.
Using
graphs are essential skills for
skills are their downfall, according
Courseware is an important part
evaluation
economists and these days they are
to the IT training arm of the
of this IT training programme, as
almost certainly going to be using
London School of Economics (LSE). materials
the staff courses and student
from each
software spreadsheet packages, such Although students are usually
workshops are built around the
as Excel, in their work.
computer savvy, they often arrive at supplier, we materials, which are also available
You’d expect today’s students,
the school with no in-depth
for staff and students to refer to on
built two
armed with their own computers
knowledge of packages such as Excel
the university’s intranet.
and often immersed in computer
and need to be brought up to speed courses,
So when LSE decided to move to
games or social networking, to find
for both their coursework and when each
Office 2003, the groundwork for
such mundane tasks a breeze. But
they start applying for jobs.
addressing introducing new course materials
began early on in the project by the
the same
then IT training manager Amber
IT training for users at the LSE
learning
Miro and her team.
point
LSE’s training year starts on
Staff are also offered one-toThey began by determining
1 August to tie in with the
one desk-side sessions and
requirements
for the courseware via
Amber Miro, former
IT training manager brainstorming during early 2005 and
academic year. Instructor-led
courses for specific groups.
staff courses in user IT training
Tailored courses began to be
consulting student advisors, who
usually begin in late September offered in 2006-7.
supervise the workshops, on what
and run to July. Student selfStaff courses have a
they felt was needed.
paced workshops run from
maximum of eight students with
The key elements that emerged
October to February.
actual averge attendance of
were that courseware should be:
The 37 different courses are
around four students in 2006-7.
suitable for both staff and
topic based, for example on
About 650 staff attended
students.
how to draw charts in Excel.
courses in 2006-7.
highly modular, so that the IT
There are also 400 online
All student courses are onetraining team could create shorter
courses on various applications hour, self-paced workshops,
and longer courses and be able to
and programming languages,
supervised by a paid student
leave out less relevant elements.
such as Photoshop and Java,
advisor. ‘The students’ lecture
in building blocks. One element
available to staff and students
cycle is one hour, so this fits in
must not depend on something
via the intranet.
gaps in their university courses,’
previously mentioned, so that
For staff, courses last two
said Brown.
learners could dip in and out.
hours. ‘Some staff are in favour
At the start of year, workshops
attractive and modern. Previous
of one-hour courses but that
run back-to-back – 30 courses
materials were text heavy and
does not give enough time for
per week – usually full with 15
unimaginatively presented.
practice exercises,’ said Brown, students. About 1,908 students
easy to put together – over 30
who delivers some courses.
attended workshops in 2006-7.
courses had to be created in a short
space of time by a small team.
Effective communication was a key factor in the successful
introduction of new IT training materials for staff and students
by the London School of Economics. Helen Boddy reports on how
the team approached the task and its subsequent investment in
course customisation software.
14 IT Training Spring 2008
www.bcs.org/ittraining
include structured guiding, but
also more challenging elements
which would require learners to
apply learning, for example
consolidation exercises and quizzes.
accurate and logical.
suitable for a range of delivery
options – instructor-led courses,
supervised workshops and
self-paced learning.
One other element that the team
considered was whether examples
should be UK-specific. ‘Our research
found that LSE students were very
comfortable with an international
context for learning materials, so we
did not have to limit our options in
that respect,’ explained Miro.
‘Once our requirements were
defined, we did a web-based search
to see what materials were available
and researched what other
universities were using. We did a
first pass at anything we came across
but pretty quickly ruled out many
solutions. It came down to two
products that met our requirements.
‘Using evaluation materials from
each supplier, we built two courses,
each addressing the same learning
point, which were assessed by the
team and by our workshop
supervisors, based on a series of
questions, such as “did you find the
steps logical”. At the end of the
process there was an overwhelming
bias in favour of Watsonia.’
The decision to award Watsonia
the contract was taken in late spring
2005. Watsonia offered two possible
formats of course materials. LSE
picked the topic sheet approach as it
appeared most modular, and was
attractively designed and laid out.
‘We also looked at Watsonia’s
courseware compilation tool,
EngineRoom, at that point but
decided in favour of building the
courses ourselves using Excel to
structure and record the course
components,’ said Miro.
Having awarded the contract, time
was then of the essence. ‘We had to
decide what materials to build and
test, and publish them with an
absolute deadline of the start of the
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Photograph by Nigel Stead, LSE
Courseware at the LSE Case study
academic year,’ explained Miro.
‘They had to be ready two weeks
before term, and we had to create
the 37 courses from scratch.’
LSE worked closely with Watsonia
to get the materials ready.
‘Both LSE and Watsonia are very
process oriented and the
comprehensive specification
roadmap drawn up by LSE really
helped a lot,’ said David Kelly,
managing director, Watsonia
Publishing.
‘We bypassed a formal project
management approach but
nominated a single contact person
to each team, sharing responsibility
for all aspects of the project, which
worked very well, alongside a
version policy. It was a model of
how to get it right.
‘It worked because of the high
level of communication between the
teams. Everyone knew where they
stood, and issues were dealt with
immediately.’
The team succeeded in publishing
the materials ready for the new
term, and the courseware was added
to the intranet in September 2005.
‘Since we introduced the new
courseware, feedback has been
generally excellent and course
evaluations have rated the material
at an average of 4.75 out of 5,’ said
Jeni Brown, who became IT training
manager in January 2006 when Miro
moved roles within LSE. ‘The score
Both LSE
for the new courseware is
and
significantly higher than for the
previous materials.’
Watsonia
What was the main ingredient of
are very
this success? ‘We thought long and
process
hard beforehand about what we
oriented
wanted and we got the student
training advisors engaged and asked
and the
students what they wanted,’ said
roadmap
‘Also, the team from Watsonia
drawn up by Miro.
was very enthusiastic, and gave us a
LSE really
lot of time.’ Continual feedback led
helped a lot to the team making some minor
adjustments to courseware in
David Kelly,
summer 2006, such as correcting a
managing director,
Watsonia Publishing few typos, but in spring 2007 they
carried out more extensive research
into whether, and how, courses
needed to be adjusted.
‘We found some were too long,
Spring 2008 IT Training 15
Case study Courseware at the LSE
and we decided that we wished to
improve the most popular courses
by restructuring them to provide
more time for consolidation
exercises,’ said Brown.
The team analysed which courses
were the most popular, which
can test what students have
actually learnt.
‘The quizzes are particularly
useful because we don’t have to test
and invigilate a formal exam but
they give some indication of skills,’
said Brown. ‘It’s also easy to update
proved mainly to be those relating to
Excel. As a result, one or two new
courses were added and some names
of existing courses changed to clarify
their content and level.
While they were planning
alterations, Brown thought it was a
good time to re-visit whether to buy
the course customisation software,
EngineRoom, from Watstonia:
‘Deciding to buy it was not about
time savings, it was about its
additional functionality. What sold
us on it this time round was the
add-ons – the fact that we could use
it to create quizzes for student
courses, for example Excel charts,
and create supporting materials for
staff training needs analysis.
‘EngineRoom can do things that
are difficult or time consuming to
perform manually, such as creating
summary review sheets, training
needs analysis materials that map to
our courses, or skills quizzes. For
tailored courses, for example, we can
use EngineRoom to create course
materials easily, whereas before we
generally did not do so because of
the extra work generated.’
The quizzes that can be generated
by EngineRoom are a particular
benefit to LSE in certifying students’
IT user skills. The IT training team
previously issued students with
attendance certificates for the
workshops (for free) but the quizzes
the quiz questions with EngineRoom.
If we didn’t have this, we would have
to write them ourselves.’
The team is now offering five
different certificates using the
quizzes – Word, Excel etc. – which
students can take via the school’s
virtual learning environment (VLE).
Brown is also working on using
EngineRoom to develop a pilot for
learning needs analysis, which
would match staff skills gaps with
courses available and provide a
roadmap for creating learning
documents tailored to a
department’s specific needs.
Kelly said: ‘EngineRoom will
generate a wide range of useful
resources for trainers, including
questions for training needs analysis.
So, for example, it takes the learning
outcomes from each course and
reverses them to make up questions.
For instance, if a learning outcome is
to learn how to create a pie chart,
the question could be: “Do you
know how to create a pie chart?”’
Brown said that they found
EngineRoom a straightforward
product to use generally, although
the learning curve was steep because
they learnt it themselves, without
tuition from Watsonia.
‘Even in teaching ourselves, we got
fantastic support along the way from
Watsonia,’ said Brown. ‘They would
either help us immediately or always
16 IT Training Spring 2008
get back to us within the day.
‘We did not find it quicker to
build courseware with EngineRoom,
compared to manually, mainly
because our courses run as two-hour
sessions and the material needs a lot
of condensing for this length of
course. That said, I think
EngineRoom would be quick to
build courses if you don’t need to
edit the raw materials much, for
example if you were running daylong courses.’
The fact that the courseware
needed editing is typical of what is
on the market, observed Miro, who
The quizzes had not found any other courseware
in her research that needed less
are
than that of Watsonia.
particularly adapting
The evolution of IT training
useful
materials by the LSE team is an
because we ongoing task, as courseware needs to
don’t have keep up with technology advances.
and IT Services at LSE are
to test and Brown
now evaluating Office 2007 and the
invigilate a accompanying training materials.
Their contract with Watsonia
formal
entitles
them to the courseware to
exam but
accompany the courses. LSE may
they give
well not migrate to Office 2007 yet,
some
but the team is considering posting
the courseware on the intranet
indication
before that for those with new
of skills
computers. More than 95 per cent of
Jeni Brown, current
students have their own computers,
IT training manager
as do the majority of staff, and new
ones are likely to have Office 2007
installed. The timing of the upgrade
of the university’s software will be
critical as it will be a tremendous
amount of work for the training
team.
Forward planning is key. ‘We need
nine months in terms of training the
team because of what we deliver
with only 1.6 trainers,’ said Brown.
‘We have to train student advisors
and, as we recruit and induct some
new ones each year.’
Pleased with the success of the
courseware work to date, Watsonia
and LSE entered the project for the
Institute of IT Training Awards in
the External Training Project of the
Year category. It was shortlisted as a
finalist.
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Accessibility Materials
Think about accessibility
Courseware and test materials are often not available in formats
that can be used by disabled people, says Derek Mills, accessibility
advisor at BCS Qualifications. In this article, he outlines the
issues and the advice available from various agencies.
Disabled people are more than twice
as likely as non-disabled people to
have no qualifications (26 per cent
compared to 10 per cent), according
to the UK’s Office for National
Statistics’ Labour Force Survey,
Sept-Dec 2006. Only half of disabled
people of working age are in work,
compared with 80 per cent of nondisabled people in the same group.
The limited accessibility of
automated testing and courseware
materials for IT qualifications is
therefore a serious cause for
concern. Disabled students, in
particular those with learning
difficulties or a visual impairment,
have a very limited choice of
courseware materials to support
studies for the European Computer
Driving Licence (ECDL), which BCS
manages in the UK. Of the 30
courseware providers approved by
the ECDL Foundation, only one has
applied for and gained the BCS
Quality Mark award for accessible
courseware materials. The award
was created because BCS believes
that accessible and appropriate
materials must be a core element of
overall provision, not an addition.
The accessibility of automated
tests is no better, and the ECDL
Foundation, the qualification’s
governing body, is currently
reviewing the accessibility guidelines
for autotest providers.
By September 2008, amendments
by e-skills UK will necessitate
changes to the ECDL coursework. A
perfect opportunity beckons for
providers to incorporate accessibility
features into their new
courseware materials.
www.bcs.org/ittraining
There is a
wealth of
advice
available
from
disability
agencies
for
companies
designing
test and
courseware
materials
There is a wealth of advice
available from disability agencies for
companies designing test and
courseware materials, a selection of
which is on the IT Training website,
for information purposes only. No
endorsement or approval on the part
of BCS should be inferred.
Recommendations depend on the
format of the material but the general
consensus includes considering:
Readability:
Text should be written in plain,
clear and consistent language and
free from unnecessary jargon.
Avoid the passive tense.
Layout:
Appropriate use of styles and
headings.
Sans serif font style such as Arial
or Verdana.
A minimum font size of 12 pt.
Left-aligned text.
Appropriate spacing.
An appropriate coloured
background to the paper or web page.
Avoidance of colour blind colours.
British Sign Language (BSL) for
candidates with a severe hearing
impairment who use BSL rather
than English.
Assistive technology
(the software and hardware which
helps to remove the barriers for
disabled candidates):
Compatibility with appropriate
software including:
screen reader and
magnification;
text to speech;
voice recognition.
Appropriate for candidates who
do not use a mouse.
The needs of disability groups
often overlap. Using clear and simple
language promotes effective
communication. Access to written
information can be difficult for
people who have learning disabilities.
Using clear and simple language also
benefits candidates for whom English
is a second or additional language
and deaf people who communicate
primarily in sign language.
More information
Alternative formats:
www.bcs.org/access
Large print, Braille, audio and
Full article with sources of advice:
Digital Accessible Information System. www.bcs.org/ittraining/accessibility1
Accessibility Awareness Day Awards
At BCS’s Accessibility Awareness
Day last October, awards went
to: Deafax, Dolphin Computer
Access, Patoss, Royal National
College for the Blind, Royal
National Institute for the Blind
College, U Can Do I.T, CiA
Training, Activ Training, Enlight,
Litmus Learning and ThirdForce.
BCS plans to hold its
Accessibility Awareness
Day annually. Register your
interest for updates via email:
[email protected].
Spring 2008 IT Training 17
Management Government funding
All aboard at low levels!
What help is the government offering to improve IT skills in the workplace, and is it working?
Donald Taylor investigates how successful the Train to Gain scheme is likely to be, how it
works and how IT training managers can benefit.
The UK IT skills shortage never
seems to end. Last year, the sector
skills council, e-Skills UK, issued a
series of reports showing an increase
in UK employers reporting IT staff
skills deficiencies, and highlighting
certain skills shortages. At the same
time, the IT industry’s growth
requires 150,000 new entrants
each year.
In response to the Leitch Review
(December 2006), the government
has pledged £900 million by 2010/11
to raise skills levels in England via
Train to Gain, and similar schemes
elsewhere in the UK. So far some
£250m have been spent, much on
lower level skills.
The Train to Gain programme,
launched in August 2006, aims to
reach 2.5 million learners by 2011,
and deliver some 1.25 million level 2
qualifications (equivalent to five
GCSEs, grade A-C).
How it works
‘Train to Gain puts organisations in
touch with a skills broker, who can
identify training suitable for their
needs,’ explains Jaine Clarke,
director of skills for employers at
18 IT Training Spring 2008
supervising body the Learning and
We saved
Skills Council (LSC). ‘Training
hundreds of
towards an employee’s first level 2
pounds just
qualification is free, and for
employers there is a contribution to in the
wage costs for time spent away from training
the workplace.’
fees
This focus on the unskilled
Simon Robinson
effectively rules most IT
professionals out of receiving the
most generous subsidies. As Tilly
Travers of e-skills UK notes: ‘Only
between 2 and 4 per cent of IT
professionals have yet to achieve a
level 2 qualification.’
Subsidies are, however, available
beyond level 2. For level 3 (A level),
they run at about 50 per cent of the
cost of training, according to Jaine
Clarke, and are not confined to
learning for qualifications. In
addition, for small businesses,
£1,000 is available per key manager
for leadership and management
training. Just over half the training is
delivered by private providers, and
the rest by the public sector, almost
always FE colleges.
Success and failure
Train to Gain can be used to fund IT
training, as language training
company, SIMON & SIMON, found
when bringing their web design
in-house. Their skills broker helped
them decide on and source
Macromedia DreamWeaver training.
‘We saved hundreds of pounds
just in the training fees,’ says
managing director Simon Robinson,
‘but the benefit goes beyond that. It
helped us focus on web marketing.’
This is the sort of success story
that Train to Gain was designed for:
increasing the productivity of small
businesses by providing relevant
training. Larger organisations, too,
see value in Train to Gain. Staff
from hospital services contractor
Medirest are taking free IT level 2
courses at Uxbridge College.
Tom Kennedy, porter and
domestic supervisor, says: ‘I had
never used a computer before I
started this course. It is interesting
and useful – you can’t do without a
computer these days.’
Not every business, though, is so
impressed. Jutta Moore, partner at
peopleknowhow.co.uk, co-owns a
restaurant and was approached by
several skills brokers in Q1 2007.
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Government funding Management
‘It was a bit confusing, as it looked
like they were in competition with
each other,’ she says. ‘In spite of
several initial phone calls and
meetings, nothing happened. When
I chased them, I had replies that the
funds had run out for now. No
approach was made again until
December 2007, when I had another
meeting with a skills broker.’
In the six weeks since that meeting, The process
no progress has occurred, and Moore is just too
remains unimpressed. ‘The process
is just too slow. I would certainly not slow. I
would
rely on it to train my team.’
Nigel Paine, international learning certainly
consultant, and former head of L&D not rely on
at the BBC, also experienced
administrative problems in the early it to train
my team
days of Train to Gain when on the
board of Ealing, Hammersmith and Jutta Moore
West London College.
‘The main problems were related
to the use of intermediaries who
went into the companies and did the
training needs analysis. Often their
solution was undeliverable and
based on what got them paid fastest.
That caused a huge amount of
trauma in the early days and
modifications were made to the
process. Now it is working much
more smoothly and with more
flexibility.’
Going for brokers
These experiences reflect a concern
of the Confederation of British
Industry (CBI). While welcoming
the money and the concept of the
skills broker, CBI principal policy
www.bcs.org/ittraining
advisory on education and skills
Richard Wainer says: ‘the
performance of the brokerage
service is patchy. Some are excellent,
some not very good at all. If the first
contact isn’t positive, then the
employer will be discouraged from
coming back for more. London and
the South East tend to be poor and
others very good.’
The House of Commons
Education and Skills Committee
voiced similar concerns in July 2007.
Clarke accepts that broker quality
is crucial to the initiative’s success,
but points out that an LSC quality
improvement programme is already
in place and that brokers are
assesssed. Also, she says, an
independent evaluation of
employers resulted in an 85 per cent
satisfaction rating of the Train to
Gain service.
How is the delivery done?
Others criticise Train to Gain for its
focus on classroom training alone.
‘Technology has a crucial role to
play in the delivery of training, and
can help small businesses that find it
costly to release staff for classroom
training,’ says Laura Overton of the
Towards E-learning Maturity
project. ‘Do skills brokers know
enough to advise on everything,
including non-classroom delivery
methods? These people are change
agents, not just selling training
courses. Are they up to it?’
Clarke thinks so: ‘Brokers look for
the best solutions for employers.
Their access to learndirect, one of the
largest providers of e-learning, means
that it’s part of what they can and
will offer.’
Train to Gain is not perfect. It will
almost certainly not provide free
training at the level you want, on the
subject you want, unless you have an
unskilled workforce.
The broker you work with may
not be one of the excellent ones
identified by the CBI and the LSC.
But the scheme clearly has
improved, and has one great
advantage in its favour: it costs
nothing to find out more, and you
can decide quite quickly whether it
will work for you. To learn more,
contact Train to Gain directly.
One thing is for sure: Train to
Gain is not going away. With a £1bn
budget, this is the stuff of ministerial
reputations and careers. It is probably
worth making a phone call to see if
your organisation can benefit.
Resources for Train to
Gain funding:
www.traintogain.gov.uk
0800 015 55 45 (in England)
e-skills Guide to funding:
www.e-skills.com/Training-andDevelopment-Guide/1721
Parliamentary report:
www.publications.parliament.uk/
pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmeduski
/333/333.pdf
Spring 2008 IT Training 19
Tools Open source
Open to informal sources
source. Secondly, one of the areas in
which most IT trainers are heavily
involved is Office – and that’s likely
to be the next big victim of the open
source movement, unless there is a
major change of direction at
Microsoft. And lastly, there are a
number of open source tools for
L&D and it’s these that you’ll want
to experiment with over the next 12
to 18 months.
Moodle
The pressure this year is to deliver more for less – and open
source could be your way of meeting that challenging
expectation, says Alan Bellinger. In this article, he examines
some open source options for the L&D manager’s portfolio.
The next 12 months are going to be
really tight; expectations are high
and budgets are low. And in that
situation, management’s looking for
just one outcome – ‘more for less’.
One of the lowest hanging fruit to
deliver more for less is to get
involved in informal learning
interventions. We’ve already seen
how these are the main way in
which skills are transferred – 70-80
per cent if you believe the research –
and yet we in L&D are typically
perceived to be delivering just the
formal stuff.
Informal interventions require
you to be net savvy . The latest
20 IT Training Spring 2008
The area
that I
recommend
(if you only
do just one
thing) is to
look into
social
networking
Alan Bellinger
technologies – and web 2.0 in
particular – create all sorts of
challenges and opportunities. It
won’t be easy, but the rewards, both
for the organisation and for
practitioners, just can’t be ignored.
So, where to start?
Open source
Step one is to get up to speed with
open source, which is now
becoming mainstream.
There are three critical issues that
make open source an area that
demands your attention. Firstly,
there are significant skills gaps
among IT professionals in open
One of the most popular open
source packages for L&D is Moodle
– www.moodle.org. It’s a
straightforward e-learning platform,
yet contains lots of collaboration
features such as forums, quizzes,
blogs, wikis, surveys, chat glossaries
and peer assessment.
To create new courseware is very
simple and you’re likely to find a
wealth of support and existing
material from within the
community.
If you haven’t already looked at it,
you should; download it, experiment
with it, and see if there’s a tactical
project within your organisation for
which it’s relevant. At least that way,
you’ll have a view on it before
you’re asked for your opinion.
Conventional applications
You’ll find lots of open source
applications in conventional L&D
areas; a Google search will find
learning management systems,
course authoring tools, learning
content management systems, tools
to create media elements such as
animations, audio, and video clips,
browsers and players to present
content, and courseware libraries.
But there’s an issue making
changes in conventional areas. The
core proposition is to replace
licensed software (which in reality,
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Open Source Tools
isn’t costing all that much) with
open source software that is license
free. There’ll be a saving, but that
could be swallowed up in learning
curve, conversion costs and
disruption.
Social networking
So what can you do? The area that I
recommend (if you only do just one
thing) is to look into social
networking. An example can be
found at Elgg – www.elgg.org.
The website has an interesting
case study from Brighton University
and, with 36,000 participants,
there’s comprehensive proof that
it’s scalable.
If you’re looking to start smaller
(lower risk and less visibility), here
are some suggestions to consider:
Blogs
Blogs are an incredibly simple way
to develop thought leadership and
open up discussion where practice is
ill-defined or subject to change. A
great blog opportunity is in the
roll-out of a new application,
especially where the system changes
established processes, procedures,
and ways of working. It is a great
source of shared ideas and facilitates
discussion on the positives (e.g. new
outcomes) and negatives (e.g.
frustration and misunderstandings).
A good list of open source blog
software is at:
www.opensourceblog.com.
short. Setting up a wiki for the
product launch enables everyone
involved in marketing, sales and
support to understand the issues
that are being addressed and the
most effective route to market
penetration. To see an example, go
to www.twiki.org.
Podcasts/vodcasts
Communities of
practice (CoPs)
CoPs work really well where
functional boundaries exist or in
situations where multi-site/multi
location issues are involved.
Effective CoPs need well-structured
Blogs are
domains which are each driven by
an
champions, contributors and users.
When well structured they work
incredibly
effectively – especially when the
simple way
‘what’s in it for me’ issue is
to develop
overcome. They will grow and
thought
shrink as the need arises – and a
CoP that’s past its sell-by date is
leadership
good news.
and open up
As an example of a successful CoP,
discussion
consider a situation in which
where
specialists working in multiple
locations on a critical issue – for
practice is
example credit risk assessment – are ill-defined
able to share information, identify
or subject
common issues, and assess
alternative approaches in a way that to change
simply would not be possible in the Alan Belllinger
conventional silo operation. You can
easily create communities of practice
in elgg – see above.
Expertise location
One of the big benefits of
collaboration is the ability to locate
In each of our organisations there is expertise – anywhere.
a considerable level of collective
Take, as an example, a major new
intelligence. The problem is that it
project that requires skills that are in
isn’t captured and structured to be of short supply, especially within the
value to others within the
immediate silo. The ability to
organisation. A wiki can create a
identify critical resources, allocate
repository of the collective
them dynamically and contact them
intelligence.
by their preferred method (and
For a great example of the way in
within their comfort zone) enables
which a wiki can be used effectively, organisations to be far more
think of a new product launch in
dynamic in their approach.
which the product details are
Virtual conferences
complex, the user profiling is
An online web meeting is both
difficult, the sales cycle is highly
simple to set up and highly
variable and the time to market is
Wikis
www.bcs.org/ittraining
rewarding for the participants –
provided it is both relevant and
timely. And the opposite is also true;
if it’s seen as a waste of time, people
won’t contribute.
There are many open source
virtual conferencing tools.
These will consist of short pieces of
learning that are accessed through
an RSS feed to a computer or MP3/4
player. They are typically put
together for critical issues that arise
and where immediacy is critical.
Getting both management and
peers involved in podcasts can be
extremely effective – for both them
and you. A number of open source
packages are available.
Shared content
repositories
Information may be shared across
multiple repositories, but if it can be
rapidly searched by a strong search
engine and made available on an ‘as
needed’ basis, you’ve created some
excellent just-in-time learning.
Strong search engines will be able to
identify the source of the item and
the media it requires, for example a
podcast or PowerPoint content
spreadsheet.
The ‘glue’
So there are many alternative
approaches to create informal
training solutions; the trick is
creating the glue to integrate them
into a comprehensive whole. The
key role of L&D is providing the
content that will be required and
integrating the different tools, so
that they appear to the user as an
integrated whole. The design brief
for this integration should focus on
ensuring that the sum of the parts is
greater than the whole.
Action plan
There are numerous ways that you
can get more involved in informal
learning situations – and the open
source tools exist that allow you to,
as Nike would say, ‘Just do it!’
Spring 2008 IT Training 21
Certification Microsoft
Alphabet soup ousts MCSE
A quiet revolution has been gradually bringing in a new breed of Microsoft qualifications,
ousting the well-known MCSE. Gary Flood looks at how Microsoft certifications for
IT professionals and for users are changing.
Remember the good old days when
milk arrived on the doorstep, the
AA saluted when they came to fix
your car, and when a job seeker said
they had a Microsoft Certified
Systems Engineer (MCSE)
qualification you knew where
you stood?
Well, maybe the last one was
always a bit questionable. In any
case, the revolution has happened –
and you may not have noticed it.
22 IT Training Spring 2008
MCSE as a qualification is on the
way out. Welcome, instead, to a
slightly more complicated world,
which for the unwary sounds like
complete alphabet soup: get ready
for new terminology such as MCTS
and MCITP (with many variations).
The term MCTS stands for
Microsoft Certified Technology
Specialist, a new base level
qualification, while the MCITP is
the software giant’s term for a new
The
programme
hadn’t
evolved at
the same
pace as our
technology
Rob Linsky,
Microsoft
Certification
breed it wants to see, Microsoft
Certified IT Professional. Though
the combinations can be complex, in
effect Microsoft has said one size no
longer fits all, spelling the end of
generic qualification such as an
MCSE. An MCTS, to have any value,
has to be an MCTS in something – a
specific bit of Microsoft technology,
for instance a database – and only
then can the IT practitioner progress
to the highest level, architect.
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Microsoft Certification
We say ‘new,’ incidentally, but this
is actually a process that started in
2005 with the new range of
Microsoft software that included
SQL Server 2005 and Visual
Studio 2005.
‘People had a lot of faith in
Microsoft certifications but the
programme hadn’t evolved at the
same pace as our technology,’ Rob
Linsky, general manager for
Microsoft Certification in the US,
told IT Training. ‘We wanted
something simple, more relevant to
the needs of the market and which
would give more value to hiring
managers, more tied to specific
technology and actual job roles. We
call it the new generation of
Microsoft certification.’
What does the marketplace think
about the shake-up of the Microsoft
education portfolio? On this
question IT Training spoke to
Richard Siddaway, head of the
Microsoft practice at a UK software
company called Centiq, who has a
raft of MSFT qualifications (MCSE,
MCDBA, NCSD.NET, etc) but who
has also passed three of the new
exams (two for SQL Server 2005 and
one for Windows Vista).
The
For Siddaway, something had to
happen – partly as a consequence of agencies
and
Microsoft’s own dominance and
success in the qualifications field.
employers
‘The MCSE had become devalued
will have to
in many people’s eyes,’ he points out,
‘because of a number of reasons: the be much
more
rise of the “brain dump sites” has
made it too easy to pass any of the
specific
common IT certification exams.
about
‘This has led to a number of
candidates who can claim to have an certifications
MCSE but can’t configure an icon on they ask for
the desktop, and I have met them.’
in the future
Similarly, ‘The boot camp
Richard Siddaway,
phenomenon has also helped to
Centiq
devalue the MCSE in that the
intensive coaching helps to get
people through the exams that do
not have the real world experience
to back up the qualification.
‘At the same time, the rise of the
home computer has convinced many
that they know “all there is to know
www.bcs.org/ittraining
about Windows” (as they can
configure their own machine) – so
the exams can’t be difficult, so
certification must all be a waste of
time. The term “engineer” is ‘overused in IT and MCSE is held by
people who do a wide variety of tasks.’
Siddaway therefore welcomes the
changes. The new certifications are
much narrower in scope, so it is
easier to determine a candidate’s
skill level – for example in an
interview the questions to ascertain
if someone holding a MCITP in
database administration would be
narrower in scope, but deeper,
because the exams only pertain to
SQL Server.
Furthermore, as Bill Walker,
technical director of UK training
specialists Xpertise, says: ‘The
beauty of what Microsoft has
achieved here is that qualifications
are finally aligned to job roles and
are not just generic across
technology.’
The new certifications also take
fewer exams, which should
encourage more certification,
believes Siddaway: ‘It’s a lot easier to
convince someone to take three
exams that directly relate to his job
rather than seven, of which only
three or four are directly relevant,
and the time limits on the new
certifications are linked to the
product releases, ensuing that people
claiming certification have to prove
currency in the topics.’
Easily confused
So far, so good: in many ways this is
an eminently rational restructuring.
But you may or may not have
noticed one slight issue. Even if the
letters MCSE had lost some of their
‘magic’ in the marketplace, they still
had value. What happens when they
go away?
‘Where there might be a problem
is that, even if MCSE is dying, there
is no equivalent single generic
umbrella qualification coming in to
replace it,’ says Wells of Firebrand
Training. ‘MCSE is a well-known
term in the industry and at the
moment something like an MCTS
doesn’t have the same clout.
Employers know – or think they
know – what they are going to get
from an MCSE that helps them
gauge the conversation, it’s a
benchmark that everyone can relate
to. Microsoft must have debated this
and decided it still needed to go
ahead, but could it lead to a phase of
confusion among employers?’
Centiq’s Siddaway agrees. ‘In that
sense, yes, MCSE going away is a
bad thing. MCSE was more or less
understood, and job agencies and
employers will no doubt be asking
for MCSE in Windows 2008 when
the product ships, thus provoking
more cries of a skills shortage?
‘I think there will be a lot of
confusion around this over the next
few years. Microsoft has spent a lot
of time and effort trying to get the
message across, but I keep meeting
people who don’t understand what is
happening. The agencies and
employers will have to be much
more specific about certifications
they ask for in the future – which
will be difficult unless they keep up
to date with the changes.’
Will Hawkins of QA-IQ thinks the
opposite. ‘This is actually much
clearer for employers, as they can
immediately see what an individual’s
specialism is. The old system wasn’t
really differentiated. Getting this
base level qualification and then
becoming more specialised in
database, development or business
intelligence makes sense. Microsoft
had to change, and this is good news
for employers who’ve been too often
disappointed with what a paper
MCSE can actually do.’
Walker of Xpertise also sees
benefits in the new certification
scheme: ‘The certifications that are
replacing MCSE are actually a lot
more beneficial for the candidates
who go for them. There was a
question mark over MCSE equalling
“jack of all trades” which will go
away for good now. That has to be
good news for employers and
professionals alike.’
Spring 2008 IT Training 23
Certification Microsoft and Cisco
We put the issue over possible
confusion to Lutz Ziob, general
manager for Microsoft Learning in
the US, and got the following
response: ‘What we are doing better
supports and mirrors what industry
and our partners want. There could
be an element of truth in your
suggestion about marketplace
confusion – but that will quickly go
away as this gains more momentum,
we believe.’
IT professionals who haven’t yet
caught up with all that is changing
in the Microsoft certification stack
can use the imminent launch of
Windows Server 2008 as a launching
pad for a thorough re-evaluation of
certification achievements and needs.
‘This is an opportunity for people
to get a head start,’ reassures QAIQ’s Hawkins. ‘The good news is if
you already have a Microsoft
certification it’s not going to be
tremendously different, so look out
for update courses to get started.’
It should also help weed out some
of the older qualifications.
‘Microsoft has set out how the
revised certifications will work but
there are some qualifications that
will persist so long as older
Microsoft technologies do,’ believes
Walker of Xpertise. ‘But the release
of Server 2008 this February will
move a lot of the older stuff to the
sidelines. Over the course of 2008
this will all fall into place.’
Changes for users
But there is another lesson here, one
for IT trainers, who may already be
up to speed with what is happening
in the technical side of Microsoft
certification. Yes, it’s a case of ‘just
when you thought it was safe to go
back in the water…’ our friends in
Redmond have decided to upgrade
their desktop productivity products
as much as they have been evolving
Cisco overhaul toughens up examinations
Paralleling Microsoft’s
modifications to its education
portfolio, Cisco is overhauling its
certification scheme. It includes
changes to the Cisco Certified
Network Associate (CCNA), the
networking world’s equivalent of
the classic Microsoft Certified
Systems Engineer (MCSE), and
the certification process
becoming much tougher.
Developments in networking
have led to Cisco expanding its
certification scheme in two
dimensions: vertically and
horizontally.
Vertically, the company has
added another layer to its
qualifications. As of July 2007 a
new entry-level qualification was
introduced, the Cisco Certified
Entry Network Technician
(CCENT) which is based on an
introductory concepts exam
accompanied by a more skillsfocused test.
CCENT leads on to the
24 IT Training Autumn 2007
CCNA itself, which is not being
replaced but overhauled.
Beyond that lie two more layers:
Cisco Certified Network
Professionals (CCNPs) and
Cisco Certified Network
Experts (CCNE).
Horizontally, Cisco has, over
the last couple of years, quietly
been adding a set of
technology-specific specialist
qualifications in the new ‘sexy’
technologies it feels it needs to
address beyond the old
heartland topics of routing and
switching: wireless, unified
communications, rich media
and (network) security. This
process is far from over with
more specialist certification due
to come on stream.
This article appeared in the
IT Training e-monthly in
January. Read the full article by
Gary Flood, including links to
further information, at:
www.bcs.org/ittraining/cisco1
The release
of Server
2008 this
February
will move a
lot of the
older stuff
to the
sidelines.
Over the
course of
2008 this
will all fall
into place
Bill Walker,
Xpertise
server and development technology
– and that has led to a parallel
change in qualifications on that side
of the fence, too.
Why? Using Office has changed.
The move from Office 2001 to 2003
was no big deal, but Office 2007 has
a different interface style (for
example the ribbon) and Gates & Co
also felt, parallel to the technical
track, that qualifications should
reflect not generic Excel or
PowerPoint skills but how they apply
to actual job roles. So here we have
the new Microsoft business
certifications, two qualifications at
two levels, MCAS (Microsoft
Certified Applications Specialist)
and MCAP (Microsoft Certified
Applications Professional).
‘This is a complete change,’
confirms Sheena Whyatt, managing
director of training firm Enlightened
Training, which specialises in this
area. ‘The MCAP is job-role
orientated, at the core and expert
level, while the MCAS is more
generic, i.e. you can be an MCAS
Excel person. The exams are also
more complex and are written to
recognise business skills.’
Wyatt’s warning to the IT training
world is that, as a result, training a
workforce in Office 2007 skills can be
trickier than you might have thought.
‘It’s far more in-depth and much
more study needed for the MCAS
alone,’ she says. ‘You can’t skim the
material; you have to study the
application and fully understand
what it is doing.
‘The message for the training
department is that Office 2007
requires a bit more attention than
you might have thought – but is
worth the investment and the
certification process around it is
definitely a value-add.’
In other words, Microsoft has
embarked on a real shift in the IT
certification market, with a firm
emphasis on professionalisation at
both the technical and user level.
Are the days of paper MCSEs
definitely over? And are you ready
to cope with the new world?
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Microsoft Knowledge in a
Box certifications
Microsoft Certified
Technology Specialist
Windows Vista, Configuration
Web Applications
Windows Applications
Distributed Applications
SQL Server 2005
Exchange Server 2007
Web and Windows Applications
Microsoft Certified
IT Professional
SQL Server 2005 Database Developer
SQL Server 2005 Database Administrator
Windows Vista Consumer Support Technician
Windows Vista Enterprise Support Technician
Upgrading MCDST to Windows Vista
Upgrade to SQL Server 2005
Learn smart,
box clever.
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programmes, from Xpertise.
Available only from Xpertise, Knowledge in a Box is a new, convenient
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Think out of the box.
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Microsoft Certified
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Microsoft Certified
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Small Business
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PRINCE2 Knowledge in a
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Complete PRINCE2 IT Project Manager
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VMware Certified Professional
More information:
Tel: 0845 757 3888 E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.xpertise.co.uk/kiab
Xpertise – the leader in authorised training
From seven training centres, Xpertise provides the UK’s widest range of authorised IT training – over
500 courses. Xpertise provides courses from most leading vendors, including CompTIA, Check Point,
Cisco, Citrix, CMI, IBM, ITIL, Microsoft, MSP, Oracle, PRINCE2, Red Hat Siebel, Sun and VMware.
Certification Business analysis
Proof of skills is vital
for business analysts
The role of business analysts has evolved to the point where, at their highest level, they
enable effective business performance, says Debbie Paul, managing director of Assist
Knowledge Development. To convince senior management of their credibility, business
analysts require a wide range of skills and experience and often need to show evidence
of their skills, for example via ISEB qualifications.
Business analysis is one of the
newest roles in the information
systems industry, having come to
prominence in the last decade.
However, the question ‘what exactly
is business analysis?’ is still asked on
a regular basis – and often discussed
by individuals with the job title
business analyst.
When the role first emerged, in
the early 1990s, its major focus was
on ensuring that the use of IT was
aligned to the needs of the
organisation. This role was felt to be
necessary because organisations
were not convinced that the IT
department really understood their
needs, and complaints about the lack
of support for the business
requirements were all too common.
26 IT Training Spring 2008
The work undertaken by these early
practitioners of business analysis
was primarily concerned with
investigating the organisational
context and identifying the business
requirements needed to be fulfilled
by the IT systems. This is still a key
area of work for business analysts.
However, the role has developed
further as it has become evident that
too often the needs of the business
were not met by IT changes.
Sometimes, business managers have
requested changes to the IT systems
that would, at best, have provided a
partial solution but sometimes little,
if any, beneficial impact. More often,
several options could have improved
the work of the organisation, some
of which did not include an IT
The
business
analyst may
work at
three
different
levels
within their
organisation
Debbie Paul
element. Where this was the case,
the business analysts were required
to analyse the business situation and
its problems in some depth;
sometimes this would require the
analysts to challenge the business
managers’ perceptions.
For example, business analysts
have sometimes found that, rather
than enhancing an IT system, the
organisation could introduce a new
procedure into the business process
or could enhance the skills and
understanding of the business users
so that they communicated with
their customers in a different way.
In some organisations, particularly
where the role has a degree of
maturity, the business analysts have
now moved on to another level. In
these organisations, they are
empowered to examine the
opportunities for business
improvement in the light of the
strategy of the organisation and the
opportunities inherent in the
external business environment. In
effect, the business analysts work
within the context of the business
strategy and determine the tactics
required to meet the strategic needs.
Once the tactics are defined, the
business analysts can address the
operational issues and ensure that
the required processes and IT
systems are put in place.
The focus of the business analyst
role has therefore changed from
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Business analysis Certification
ensuring the IT systems met the
business needs to understanding the
business needs and then identifying
the possible ways forward for the
organisation. Although a subtle
change in emphasis, this has opened
up new opportunities for business
analysis and raised its profile.
Consequently, this development has
also required the analysts to acquire
additional competencies and
required organisations to empower
their business analysts with greater
authority.
Herein lies a problem, however,
because, whereas the analysts are
often keen to extend the scope and
authority of their role, this has not
always been appreciated by the
organisations that employ them and
hence has led to a great deal of
frustration. Many analysts have also
felt that opportunities to deliver real
business improvement have been
lost. They recognise that they can
operate as internal consultants to
their organisations but some
business managers feel that the
analysts should limit their work to
documenting IT requirements and
providing support in delivering the
IT solution.
So, the business analyst may work
at three different levels within their
organisation. They may focus on
ensuring that the IT requirements
really are requirements, support the
business context and are welldefined. Alternatively, they could
look at the business operations and
any problems inherent within them
in order to provide business
managers with options for business
improvement within their areas. But
ultimately, the business analyst may
operate at a consultancy level,
providing senior management with
guidance on the tactical and
operational working practices.
Organisations are facing
increasing competition, customer
demands and constant change to the
external business environment. This
places pressure upon organisations
to respond to these issues by
constantly striving to improve and
www.bcs.org/ittraining
The analysts
need to
establish
credibility
with their
internal
customers.
If they fail
to do this, it
is debatable
whether
senior
managers
would listen
to them and
follow their
advice
Debbie Paul
develop. Business managers often do
not have the time or the expertise,
particularly in specialist areas such
as IT or process improvement, to
react to these changes. So the
specialist skills provided by the
business analysts are vital. This
holistic view of the organisation,
and performance improvements,
can also ensure that investments
are made wisely and reflect real
business needs.
However, if business analysis is
going to deliver all of this benefit to
organisations it has to be provided
by skilled practitioners. This means
that the business analysts have to
have a range of competencies in
order to handle the vast array of
issues that face their organisations.
These competencies may be
categorised in two key areas – the
professional skills required for the
business analysis specialism, and the
personal attributes required to work
effectively with internal customers.
In addition, because the business
analyst is an internal role,
organisations often require evidence
of these skills; the analysts need to
establish their credibility with their
internal customers. If they fail to do
this, it is debatable whether senior
management would listen to them
and follow their advice.
One way of providing such
evidence is via ISEB qualifications.
The Information Systems
Examination Board of the BCS
recognised the growth of the
business analyst role in the
mid-1990s and began to offer
qualifications to help the
development of professional skills
for business analysts. In 1999, a
qualification portfolio aimed at
business analysts was launched with
the establishment of the ISEB
Diploma in Business Analysis.
This qualification is based upon a
modular structure and has been
designed to encompass best practice
across the range of areas within
which business analysts work. To
obtain the diploma, candidates need
to pass written examinations in four
subjects – three mandatory subjects
and one specialist subject chosen
from four options – plus pass an oral
examination.
The mandatory subjects are:
organisational context – the
fundamental areas of organisations,
including IT law and business finance;
business analysis essentials – a
framework and techniques for initial
business analysis studies, typically
carried out prior to the definition of
business improvement projects;
requirements engineering – a
framework and techniques for
eliciting, analysing and documenting
the business requirements that help
to define an IT solution.
The optional subjects, from which
one must be selected, are modelling
business processes, benefits
management and business acceptance,
systems modelling techniques or
systems development essentials.
The ISEB qualification provides
candidates with a range of skills,
based on knowledge and practical
application. The examinations
require candidates to demonstrate
their ability to apply techniques in
practice via case study scenario. The
oral examination tests the other area
of competence – the interpersonal
and problem-solving skills. As a
result, the qualification rewards
candidates who can demonstrate that
they have practical skills and can
apply them to business problems.
The ISEB qualifications portfolio
was recently extended with the
introduction of the ISEB
Professional award. This gives
professional recognition to
individuals who can demonstrate
extensive knowledge and experience
in their chosen specialism, for
example business analysis, plus
knowledge of other specialist areas
covered by the ISEB portfolio.
The inclusion of business analysis
for this professional recognition
reflects the increasing profile of
business analysis and the benefit
practitioners can bring to their
organisations and the
industry overall.
Spring 2008 IT Training 27
Certification Mainframes
Big iron seeks new blood
As the carthorses of the computing industry, mainframes have
held their own in the computing industry for more than 40 years.
Many of the existing workforce, however, will soon put down the
reins, and the industry is looking to a newly launched certification
to help attract a new generation into ‘big iron’.
Mainframes are the heartbeat of
many leading edge industries, such
as financial services. In fact, IBM
says almost all the major banks in
the UK use mainframes, and they
are popular too with retail,
government, and top blue chip
companies, such as BA and BT.
‘What people tend to forget is the
importance of mainframe systems –
without them, for instance, you
wouldn’t get paid or be able to use
mobile phones,’ said Alan Whitfield
of RSM Technology, a mainframe
training provider.
Furthermore, mainframes, despite
previous predications of their
demise, are still going strong and
benefiting from the incorporation of
new developments, such as Linux
and Websphere.
28 IT Training Sping 2008
However, as the industry has aged What people
– it’s now more than 40 years old –
tend to
so has its workforce. Employers need
forget is the
to attract new blood into the
industry, a move supported by IBM importance
so that mainframe usage does not
of
suffer due to a lack of qualified staff.
mainframe
It was the mainframe customers
systems –
who first came up with the idea for
creating a certification scheme to
without
provide a structured career path for them, for
their employees.
instance,
Pete Stevenson, chair of the GSE
you
(UK) Training and Certification
Working Group and independent
wouldn’t get
consultant, was one of those who
paid or be
originally proposed the idea when
able to use
he was working at JP Morgan as staff
mobiles
development manager. Having
worked in mainframe storage, he
Alan Whitfield,
RSM Technology
saw a majore need for certification.
‘There was no meaningful staff
development programme in place
for mainframes,’ he explained. ‘I
spoke to RSM about our ideas for a
certification scheme and we started
to develop the idea. The Royal Bank
of Scotland was also keen to
introduce certification for storage
technicians, which gave the initiative
more impetus.’
The result of initial talks was the
launch last year of the BCS
Mainframe Technology Professional
certification (BCS MTP).
‘Advantages for employers of this
certification are that they can easily
recognise what skills are held by
their staff. This makes it easier for
employers to identify what skills
they have anywhere in the
organisation, making it easier to
allocate the correct resources to
projects,’ said Stevenson.
‘Both employer and employee can
build proper career paths, which had
not existed in the past. There are
compulsory and optional modules in
the new certification scheme, it’s
easy for an employer to see what
staff are good at and where they
need to concentrate their
development efforts.’
Staff recruitment is one of the
most important drivers for
certification, according to Barrie
Heptonstall, technical sales and
services director, IBM Systems and
Technology Group.
‘Certification will help companies
to attract staff and reward existing
staff,’ he said. ‘It gives the industry
professional standards, and should
help mainframe professionals to
move about within different areas.
Currently they could work, for
example, as a database operator, or a
systems programmer, and don’t tend
to switch between roles.
‘Also, if you choose to specialise in
Microsoft, for example, you got lots
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Mainframes Certification
Both
of pieces of paper, but with
mainframes you could have lots of
employer
experience but nothing on paper.’
and
Until now, people have typically
employee
been trained on the job or by going
can build
on individual courses run by
vendors or IT training providers.
proper
Some vendors offer examinations career
in their systems, but Heptonstall
believes independent certification is paths,
which had
essential for the industry. This has
been met by BCS, as an independent not existed
examining body, partnering with
in the past
RSM to deliver the exams.
Pete Stevenson,
‘There has been no worldwide
GSE
certification previously with an
independent stamp,’ said
Heptonstall. ‘And endorsement from
BCS, an industry body with a royal
charter, gives it extra credibility.
‘I think BCS Mainframe
Technology Professional should
operate a bit like Linux – because
everybody owns it, no-one in
particular owns it – and that will be
better for the industry as a whole.
We can deliver content into it and
help to roll it out to customers.
However, we know that many of our
customers use other suppliers’
equipment, and would like them also
to be covered in the certification.’
The certification is split into three
different paths – operations (day-today running), technical support
(systems programmers), and software
development. There are three levels
for each path and each is examined
via multiple choice questions, short
written answers and interaction with
a simulated mainframe.
Many of the level 1 and 2 exams
are available already but more are
being developed and will be
available during early 2008.
‘In the future, third party
software vendors (such as IBM or
CA) will be able to write separate
modules, so there will be even more
modules to choose from,’ said
Whitfield. ‘The operating system
exam has been written to be IBM
specific, but where possible alternate
modules will be available.’
‘The BCS MTP website explains in
meticulous detail what each level
will test on,’ he said. ‘They are not
typical certification exams because
they are about applying knowledge –
knowing what to do will not be
enough – you’ll need to have done it.’
Many organisations in the UK
have already taken a corporate
decision to go through the
certification, according to Whitfield.
A lot are in the financial services
industry and IT services industry,’ he
said. ‘For instance, when applying for
government contracts, it demonstrates
that the supplier has the skills.’
With IBM UK having pledged its
support, GSE, the IBM mainframe
user group, is working to get the seal
of approval from IBM worldwide.
Stevenson sees worldwide support as
important to help standardise skills
across the globe. BCS MTP is due to
launch in America early this year
and Japan, Australia, Brazil and
Malaysia have also shown interest.
www.bcs-mtp.com
Is your learning and development strategy missing a few important pieces?
HRD, 15–17 April 2008
ExCeL London
Europe’s largest learning and
development conference
and exhibition
s¬ /VER¬¬SEMINARS¬
s¬ ¬(2¬PROFESSIONALS¬
s¬ ¬EXHIBITORS
Update yourself on the latest
issues, find new suppliers and
align your L&D strategy with your
organisational objectives.
Join
us at HRD for the full picture
Find out more today:
Visit www.cipd.co.uk/fullpicture
or call 020 8612 6248
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Spring 2008 IT Training 29
Self study
Book reviews
Our IT experts review a selection of recently published books covering an array of
subject areas. For more reviews, see www.bcs.org/bookreviews
An Executive’s Guide to
Information Technology
Principles, Business Models,
and Terminology
Robert Plant, Stephen Murrell, 384pp
Cambridge, £35.00
ISBN: 9780521853361
Rating
###$$
the positive and negative issues
in each case. This is followed by
a business value proposition,
although therein lies the
problem.
The authors are clearly
experts in the field of
computing and provide detailed
descriptions of a wide range of
computing terms and concepts.
Unfortunately their grasp of
business reasoning is not as
comprehensive, which means
the business value proposition,
the component of the
description that would be of
most significance to executives,
does not deliver.
In most cases the value
proposition does not reflect the
benefit that the technology or
concept could bring to a
business, instead focusing on
‘how’ the technology can be
used rather than ‘why’ a
business should invest in it.
Likewise, some of the
detailed explanations also tend
to wander. An example is the
definition of instant messaging,
which meanders off course.
Notwithstanding these
shortcomings, as a general IT
reference this book is excellent.
For the relatively experienced
IT professional, this is an
excellent and recommended
publication.
Conversely, as a handy
reference for a non-technical,
business-focused executive, this
book frequently over explains
topics and often lacks the
business insights and
perspectives proclaimed on
the cover.
From the title, it is clear that
this book is trying to tap into
the business market by
providing a dictionary of
‘principles, business models and
terminology’ for the semi- and
non-technical executive.
As an explanation of IT terms
this book is very effective,
especially as, unusually, it hides
the American origins of its
authors by including a wide
range of UK specific computing
definitions.
The book is laid out in
alphabetical order – in a rather
annoyingly ‘column’ format –
which means that, whilst there
is no grouping of like terms,
finding a particular explanation
is relatively easy. Each term is
given a brief definition, a more Reviewed by James Poxon
detailed overview and a view of MBCS CITP
30 IT Training Spring 2008
perfect textbook introduction
for novices and experts alike.
The authors introduce the
readers to the popular honey
framework, which is invented
by one of the co-authors (Niels
Provos), and provide a step-bystep guide to installing,
configuring and running
honeypots in a variety of
isolated and network settings.
Honeyed is open source and
freely available to the public.
The rest of the book covers
a range of topics from malware
Virtual Honeypots: From Botnet to botnets to honeypot
Tracking to Intrusion Detection detection. There is also a whole
chapter (the one I found most
Niels Provos and Thorsten Holz, 80
interesting) on a variety of case
ppAddison Wesley, £35.99
studies where honeypots are
ISBN: 978-0321336323
put to effective use.
####$
Rating
These are excellent in setting
out the context of honeypot
Honeypot is a relatively new
deployment in the real world
concept which promises to
and are just what is needed for
strengthen network security
a technology as new as this. Be
defences by facilitating an
it worms, trojans or intrusion
understanding of attack
detection, everything is
behaviour and related
covered. Readers are given
phenomena.
useful tips for practical
This book is a very good
deployments and shown how to
introduction to the technical
monitor real attack behaviour
and operational concepts of
in detail.
honeypots, covering a wide
On the whole, showered with
variety of honeypot
authors’ observations based on
technologies that have emerged their extensive design and
in a short time.
operational experience of
The first chapter begins with honeypots, this book is
a short primer on basic
excellent value for money. It has
network and security concepts
something for everyone:
before leading the reader
students, academic researchers
straight into the world of
and industry professionals.
honeypots, comparing and
Anyone interested in network
differentiating between various security would find the book
high and low interaction
very easy to read, highly
honeypots.
relevant and up-to-date.
The following two chapters
then delve deeper into these
Reviewed by Siraj Shaikh MBCS,
technologies and provide a
research officer, Cranfield University
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Self study
distinct sections by different
authors.
The material is presented
with in-line questions to check
understanding and example
examination questions at the
end of each section. The last
chapter briefly explains the
examination format.
The content comprehensively
covers software lifecycle
activities and the
corresponding review and test
Head First PMP
methods. The V model and
Jennifer Greene and Andrew Stellman
iterative are both considered.
This is supported by planning,
O’Reilly, £35.50
analysing and reporting the
ISBN: 9780596102340
testing.
####$
Rating
The ideas of what to test and
Reviewed by Elias Pimenidis MBCS when to stop are given with a
clarity which would benefit the
This book is different as it piles CITP
‘test ‘till we run out of time’
over 650 pages of images,
brigade. The various levels of
pictures and art-work to imitate
testing and raisons de être are
a student notebook, aiming to
given for system, acceptance,
make reading fun while at the
unit and integration tests.
same time raising awareness
Detailed techniques of
and stimulating interest in the
black/white box testing and
subject. The focus is not just on
peer/inspection review are a joy
the standard topic areas and
to an auditor who mainly sees
issues surrounding project
acceptance tests being repeated
management, but on those
until the software learns them.
items that are occasionally
The worked examples based on
overlooked and may be the
design diagrams and code
source of trouble for a project.
fragments greatly assist the text.
The authors attempt to
Static and dynamic analysis are
address a triple-bill:
given good coverage. The
1. Explain and convince the
technical content is backed by
reader of the merits of being
Software Testing:
the techniques of test
PMP certified.
management based on risk, the
2. Guide the reader through the An ISEB Foundation
Brian Hambling et al, 208pp
use of metrics and tool support.
key elements and core
Although the book is aimed
knowledge required for the
BCS, £24.95
at
the exam, it would be
examination.
ISBN: 978-1-902505-79-4
invaluable for anyone involved
3. Provide tips on tricky issues
Rating
#####
in testing and would lift the
of project management that
game of most VV&T staff
even experienced professionals
ISEB offers foundation and
(including designers doing
would find useful.
more advanced certificates in
their ‘informal’ reviews and
The book succeeds in all of
various IT fields. Software
tests) and their project
the above objectives in that it
managers. It is succinctly and
manages to include all of them. testing is one of them.
This is a broad definition of
clearly written with no
However, it is repetitious and
testing because the exam covers nonsense.
the size of the book does little
development QC checks, such
in tackling the boredom issue
as design reviews as well. The
Reviewed by Brian Peaker
of purely academic texts.
education syllabus to achieve
quality assessor, Lloyd’s Register
As a project management
certification is covered in
Quality Assurance
text, this book is too complex.
Very useful tips are frequently
mixed with PMP jargon. Thus
the professional has to
constantly ‘dig’ for those tips
and this limits the book’s
usefulness as a reference text.
As a training book it could be
successful as it includes various
tests and brain joggers. The
authors though tend to spend
too many pages on justifying
the need to get certified – a
waste for the reader that has
selected a training book.
As training material, this
book is excellent value as it is
well geared to the needs of the
certification examination.
www.bcs.org/ittraining
IT Trainer’s Pocketbook
Jooli Atkins,112 pp
Management Pocketbooks £6.99
ISBN: 978-1-903776-12-0
Rating
#####
This book is simple to read and
understand with handy hints,
minus the technical jargon.
It is a most intuitive book for
new trainers. It gives advice on
how to deal with various
situations including too many
delegates, poor room layout,
lack of resources, difficult
participants and different
learning pace of delegates.
The author details the pros
and cons of the various room
layouts and how to get the
correct balance when mixing
delegates with differing
learning rate. The section on
difficult delegates is extremely
enlightening as a trainer is
bound to come cross one if not
a combination of those
described by the author.
The author also addresses
areas such as training needs
analysis, the different learning
styles, how much a trainer
needs to know, as well as how
to engage the learner and
learning evaluations.
The book is well written and
is a worthy gem of handy tips.
Reviewed by: Uma Kanagaratnam
MBCS, application support analyst
For further information on these
books please contact our sales team
at C.B.Learning.
Tel: 0121 702 2828
Fax: 0121 606 0478
[email protected]
Spring 2008 IT Training 31
NEWS
www.iitt.org.uk
Firebrand Training
IT Training Awards night is a success
The Institute of IT Training’s IT Training
Awards for 2008 were presented at a
glittering gala dinner held at The
Dorchester in London on 7 February. A
capacity audience of over 450 people
attended this year’s awards.
The event also included an address by
Jayne Morris, a ChildLine counsellor, who
spoke about her counselling work with the
ChildLine charity for children in trouble or
danger, for which the Institute raised
£14,000 in its annual Charity Auction. This
brought the total raised by the Institute for
the charity to £120,000.
The blue riband award of Training
Company of the Year was won by
Firebrand Training (formerly The Training
Camp). This is the first time a training
company has won the award three years in
32 IT Training Autumn 2007
succession. They also achieved gold in the
Learning Centre of the Year category for
the second year.
Another company scooping two awards
was Cadbury Schweppes, whose IT
Applications Training team won the
Internal Training Project of the Year and
Training Department of the Year awards.
The Training Department of the Year for
Public Sector was won by West Sussex
County Council’s CLD Learning
Solutions team.
A new award recognising outstanding
quality in learning facilities was presented
this year. The Learning Facilities of the Year
award was presented to the New Technology
Institute, Birmingham.
Matt Leaver, an IT trainer with
Verridian, won the accolade of Trainer of
the Year and the prestigious e-Learning
Project of the Year award was won by LINE
Communications. Ryan Thompson,
currently of Happy Computers, collected
the Freelance Trainer of the Year award.
The training team from Rotherham
Metropolitan Borough Council won the
Staff Development Project of the Year
award and Afiniti took the External
Training Project of the Year.
Jacquie Rayner of HM Prison Service
was presented with the Training Manager
of the Year.
Institute chief executive Colin Steed,
addressing the audience at the awards
ceremony, said: ‘The annual IT Training
Awards honour those individuals and
organisations who really shone in the past
year and we are here to celebrate their
achievements tonight.
‘We must not underestimate the
importance of giving national recognition
to the skills and achievements that are
driving best practice in our industry. Such
initiatives are representative of a sector that
is fast maturing to accomplish specific,
relevant business results through the
appropriate use of standards-driven IT
training and development.
‘The solutions and projects detailed in
the award entries are enabling organisations
throughout the country to deliver
knowledge and learning faster and more
efficiently – some in ways that were not
possible before.
‘Once again, the quality of the entries has
been higher than ever, which demonstrates
www.bcs.org/ittraining
These pages are produced by the Institute of IT Training
Westwood House, Westwood Business Park, Coventry, CV 8HS, United Kingdom
Tel 0845 0068858 Fax 0845 0068871
Email [email protected] Web www.iitt.org.uk
that the industry is pushing forward and
creating higher quality, measurable,
business-aligned learning solutions.
‘I would like to congratulate everyone
who entered the awards, every one of the
finalists, and of course those who have won
these prestigious awards. We should all
aspire to the outstanding achievements that
have been made by everyone who collects
an award tonight.’
The Colin Corder Award for outstanding
contribution to the IT Training Industry
was John Leighfield CBE.
Steed said: ‘John Leighfield has been
chairman of RM (Research Machines), a
provider of IT services to education since
1993 and has been deeply involved in the
advancement of the development and use
of ICT in schools.
‘John has held several key roles in
organisations involved in IT education and
standards, such as the Sector Skills Council
and training bodies.
‘In the late 1990s he established the
Alliance for Information Systems Skills
which contributed much to improving the
professionalism of IT in the UK by the
creation of the Skills Framework for the
Information Age (SFIA), which is
increasingly being adopted as the career
structure for IT in government and
industry in the UK.
‘The Institute is delighted to present its
most prestigious award – the Colin Corder
Award for outstanding contribution to IT
training – to John Leighfield tonight.’
The event was sponsored by the BCS and
was hosted by Sky TV Breakfast presenter
Lucy Alexander.
The 2009 IT Training Awards take place
on 5 February 2009.
www.bcs.org/ittraining
Full results
Internal Training Project of the Year
Sponsored by SAS
Gold: Cadbury Schweppes
Silver: HM Prison Service
Bronze: National Leadership and
Innovations Agency for Healthcare
External Training Project of the Year
Sponsored by Ricoh
Gold: Afiniti & Network Rail
Silver: Assima DACG & RS
Components
Bronze: Saffron Interactive & Hilton
International
e-Learning Project of the Year
Sponsored by EMC
Gold: LINE Communications &
Ministry of Defence
Silver: Saffron Interactive &
Hilton International
Bronze: Tata Interactive Systems &
ICICI Bank
Learning Centre of the Year
Sponsored by NCC
Gold: Firebrand Training
Learning Facilities of the Year
Sponsored by Institute of IT Training
Gold: The New Technology
Institute, Birmingham
Staff Development Programme
of the Year
Sponsored by Oracle University
Gold: Rotherham Metropolitan
Borough Council
Silver: Fujitsu Services
Training Manager of the Year
Sponsored by Pearson VUE
Gold: Jacquie Rayner,
HM Prison Service
Silver: Tiina Paju-Pomfret, BUPA
Business Technology Training
Bronze: Di Morgan-Rawes,
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Freelance Trainer of the Year
Sponsored by Capital Training
Gold: Ryan Thompson
Trainer of the Year
Sponsored by OCR
Gold: Matt Leaver, Verridian
Silver: Kerry Baker, BUPA Business
Technology Training
Bronze: Sarah Briscoe,
Happy Computers
Training Department of the Year
(Public Sector)
Sponsored by Global Knowledge
Gold: West Sussex County Council –
CLD Learning Solutions Team
Silver: HM Prison Service –
Phoenix Training Team
Bronze: Worcestershire
County Council
Training Department of the Year
Sponsored by IBM
Gold: Cadbury Schweppes IT
Applications Training Team
Silver: BUPA Business
Technology Training
Bronze: Miller Homes
Training Company of the Year
Sponsored by Prometric
Gold: Firebrand Training
Silver: Happy Computers
Bronze: Oracle University
Colin Corder Award
Sponsored by QA-IQ
John Leighfield CBE
Autumn 2007 IT Training 33
E-learning Comment
Clive Shepherd
E-learning evolves into two tiers
Two discussions over the rapid development authoring tools – some
past month, one with
for the desktop, like Captivate and
rapid e-learning specialist Articulate; some available across an
Kineo’s Steve Rayson and the other with
enterprise as an online service, like
virtual world developer Caspian Learning’s Atlantic Link and Mohive – and employ
Graeme Duncan, have crystallised for me
streamlined rapid development processes.
how the market for bespoke e-learning
As a result, the turnaround time could be
materials is evolving with a distinct
anything from a few hours to a few weeks
two-tier structure.
with the cost relatively negligible and
Traditionally, self-study e-learning
certainly well under £5K.
could be viewed as a single entity, with
The higher tier of bespoke development
development taking place over many
follows the traditional model in many
months and at a cost measured in tens of
ways, but importantly it aims to deliver
thousands of pounds for each finished
something really special, something that
hour of learning. This cost and timescale
can’t be achieved easily in other ways. This
was dictated by the number of
tier is reserved for those projects with
specialisms involved in design,
complex and/or high impact objectives,
development and testing, and the rigid
with sensible lead times and
formality of the process.
appropriately generous budgets.
Now, there’s
These projects
nothing inherently
require
the care and
Recent evidence suggests
wrong in
attention of
today’s tech-savvy media professionals –
multi-disciplinary
consumers are quite
teams or with
instructional
rigorous project
designers, software
happy to mix Hollywood
management
engineers, graphic
with YouTube
processes, but they
designers, animators
have limited the application of bespoke
or 3D artists, as well as audio and video
e-learning to large organisations with hefty specialists – working together as an
budgets and projects with plenty of lead
integrated team under the watchful eye of a
time. As any learning and development
project manager.
professional will tell you, most of the
You would expect e-learning content at
requirements piling up in their inbox are
this higher level to include one or more of
not in this category.
the following: a degree of intelligence or
The new two-tier model that is emerging personalisation; challenging scenarios
recognises the continuing importance of
using rich media; simulations with high
formal e-learning development, but
functional fidelity (they behave like realresponds to the need for an alternative,
life); elements of game play; 3D models of
rapid response approach.
interesting objects that can be manipulated
The lower tier meets the requirement for and explored; virtual worlds with high
‘good enough’ digital content, designed to
physical fidelity (they look like real-life).
communicate simple information or
You may not be seeing so much of these
provide basic knowledge without fuss. This high-end features just now – but this is
content may take the form of a simple
what you should be expecting when you
interactive tutorial, a screen capture movie, pay top dollar. You may argue that the two
a short video, a podcast, a narrated
tiers sit uncomfortably together – that
PowerPoint presentation or a PDF. It may
learners who have experienced the best ebe designed and developed in-house, by
learning available will turn their noses up
subject experts or generalist trainers, or
at rapid content – but recent evidence
outside by a new breed of rapid developers. suggests otherwise: today’s tech-savvy
These people will make use of the latest
media consumers are quite happy to mix
34 IT Training Spring 2008
Hollywood with YouTube, glossy
magazines with blogs; big-label albums
with indie music recorded in bedrooms. It’s
not about high quality versus low quality;
it’s about fitness for purpose.
The new two-tier structure is good news
for those offering rapid tools and services,
and for those with the skills to develop
leading edge interactivity.
It is not good news for those who have
made their living providing lower-tier
content at higher-tier prices. There is
ample evidence to suggest that
organisations are wising up to what they
can expect to get for their money. And
they won’t pay £20K an hour or more for
simple page turners, even if they do have
nice graphics. And this new arrangement
may help self-paced e-learning to recover
its rather tarnished image.
The lower-tier will get the job done
quickly and no-one’s going to expect
fantastic quality. The higher end will show
that e-learning at its best can be highly
engaging and make a tremendous
contribution to solving difficult problems.
Who can argue with that?
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