British Computer Society

ONLY A QUALIFIED WORKFORCE CAN IMPLEMENT THE GOVERNMENT'S IT STRATEGY

The government has set itself some demanding targets as part of its endeavour to provide Britain with a leading edge in the use of IT.

First, it has established partnerships between itself and industry, the voluntary sector, trades unions and consumer groups to ensure that the UK is a world leader in the new knowledge economy. It has set up its UK online campaign, which aims to draw together individual government projects that embrace the new digital communication technologies available to help make the UK a leading knowledge economy.

The government is also determined to use IT to present its services in a consumer-focused way. But, to do so, it needs to change people's attitudes towards the Internet, so that people use it more in their everyday lives, in their business transactions and in their dealings with local and national government.

More government websites are designed to encourage people to access facilities such as licence and passport applications, tax returns, etc online. This is part of its commitment to electronic delivery of all government services by 2005.

Parliament is also focusing more and more on IT issues. Recently there has been a House of Lords inquiry into microchips, two parliamentary debates on the technical aspects of the credit card industry and on the provision of broadband services throughout the UK. And, at the time of writing, the Communications Bill is still going through Parliament, which has received a wide range of submissions because of the impact the new bill will have on the IT community.

However, new hardware systems and software upgrades combined with the integration of complementary technologies, such as mobile communications, and their impact on information management are now placing enormous burdens on government employees. At best, valuable time resources are being wasted in attempting to come to grips with the new technology or, at worst, costly mistakes made in grappling with a technology ironically designed to improve ease of use, yet continually remaining one step ahead of the comprehension of many.

The low levels of computer-skills qualification within the government sector, as with the private sector, can often be attributed to management concern over the perceived costs of committing budget to an area where knowledge and competency is assumed.

Yet, the potential benefits of a qualified workforce are substantial. The introduction of staff training that leads to qualification has been proven to result in a huge boost to productivity. Research shows that qualified staff with qualified levels of computing competency will reduce support costs and time wasted due to lack of computer skills and general IT knowledge.

A recent fact uncovered by the British Computer Society (BCS), a leading force in promoting the qualification of computer skills and improving public understanding of its importance in the UK, is that staff certified with a qualification - such as our European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) - can cut wasted time by an average of 38 minutes a day for each computer operator within an organisation. Motivation can also be increased as managers demonstrate commitment, value and investment in their team, thereby reducing staff turnover.

One parliamentary sector recognising the need to move towards qualifying the computer skills of staff is the Cabinet Office. As part of its drive to deliver services electronically by 2005, the Cabinet Office is undertaking a training initiative in conjunction with the BCS to offer the ECDL qualification in computer competency to its staff. Using IT to meet the needs of citizens and businesses was one of the five key commitments in the Modernising Government White Paper. The ECDL was introduced to train and develop staff to ensure this aim was met.

The ECDL is a modular program, managed by the BCS in the UK, covering seven core subjects, which teach how to use word processors, spreadsheets, slide and graphics presentations, databases, the Internet and communications.

Ruth Kirby, Head of Cabinet Office Corporate Management and Reform, says that in selecting the ECDL the Cabinet Office sought a learning program that spanned the range of basic user skills and was based on e-learning principles, enabling users to utilise their new skills as they learn. Typically, civil service staff, like most office workers, possess a very mixed level of computer skills, reflecting the fact that some use computers on a daily basis while others have very little requirement in their day-to-day work.

There are a number of benefits from a program such as the ECDL. It is a formal qualification that is widely recognised; it provides an opportunity to build skills while learning; it increases confidence in using IT and it encourages lifelong learning. A framework agreement has been devised with the BCS which covers a wide range of options to help any government departments, agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies listed in the Civil Service Yearbook wishing to implement the ECDL into their own training and qualification strategy.

The Cabinet Office's decision to implement the ECDL reflects the way in which the qualification has been established within the public sector as being key to delivering this vital element of e-government. Already both the NHS and the Ministry of Defence have invested significant funds in encouraging employees to gain the ECDL certification and a recent report from the Society for Information Management on the ECDL best practice within the local government sector shows that it is proving extremely valuable.

Chancellor Gordon Brown's latest budget announced a £30mn boost to small firms' training provisions, an acknowledgement of the burgeoning IT-skills gap that is impacting on the productivity and effectiveness of British business. A new survey of small businesses has shown that problems with computers cause workers enormous stress as well as diminishing the value of the initial IT-system investment cost. The stress increases when the user does not understand the jargon used by the IT-support department when they are fixing the problem.

Other research conducted by MORI on behalf of Compaq, surveying 1250 workers in the UK, showed that one in six computer users admit that their computer problems are normally down to their own lack of knowledge and understanding. It is not just individuals who realise this. Recent research by the BCS revealed that nine in every ten British companies believe that there are computer-skills gaps within their organisation. The importance of these survey results is demonstrated by these findings: 98 per cent of staff require computer skills as part of their everyday jobs, but three-quarters of those recognised that time is wasted due to lack of computer knowledge.

It also found that the most common reason for lack of computer skills is that there are no formal training programmes in place, with only a third of organisations implementing a formal structure of any kind. Despite the fact that 64 per cent of employers recognise that qualifications act as a measurable standard of computer skills, a quarter of employers still consider IT qualifications to be unimportant. These figures suggest that the IT-skills gap remains and that the productivity and effectiveness of British businesses may be suffering as a consequence.

How does the ECDL address these issues?
This internationally recognised core-skills qualification, promoted in the UK by the BCS, is designed to provide a tangible measure and certification of a computer user's competency. It aims to raise the general level of computer competency, improve productivity at work, reduce IT-support costs and ensure that best practice and quality issues are understood and implemented.

The ECDL covers more than just how to type documents or input formulae into spreadsheets - it covers a wide variety of basic terms, including terminology and managing files. Thus, a qualified workforce is enabled to sort out simple problems, indeed, to avoid some of the more common ones altogether. This creates a more productive workforce who get their work done on time, and so it becomes unnecessary for them to do overtime or take work home with them.

Those who have taken the qualification bear this out. The ECDL achieved a 95 per cent satisfaction rate amongst recipients of the certificate, in a major assessment of attitudinal feedback from those who have completed it. Ten thousand UK recipients of the ECDL were approached to gauge satisfaction with the program leading to the qualification, and the results of the poll - undertaken by the BCS - were impressive.

Apart from a gratifying 95 per cent satisfaction rating, almost two-thirds of those polled chose the ECDL because of its broad recognition as a computer-skills qualification. In addition, 97 per cent said they would recommend the ECDL to family, friends and colleagues and 87 per cent were interested in an ECDL Advanced qualification. Significantly, 89 per cent paid less than £100 to complete and qualify. The ECDL has therefore proved its broad appeal and affordability to those wishing to gain recognised computer-skills qualifications.

The increased importance of computer-skills qualifications in the workplace was also underlined by the high number of respondents who stated their reason for studying for the ECDL as: "to help me do my current job more efficiently" (38 per cent); "my employer encouraged or asked me to do it" (22 per cent); "to help me find a new job or secure promotion" (22 per cent).

Mervyn King, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, is reported to have stated, "Across the bank, the ECDL will enable people to achieve a wide range of essential skills in IT, on which they can build in the future. I am convinced that it is an ideal way for my colleagues to improve and consolidate their knowledge, to build confidence and to improve both productivity and decision-making."

Recently the BCS launched the ECDL Advanced. The new qualification operates in a similar way to the ECDL, where a candidate must sit a test at an Accredited Test Centre. The ECDL Advanced is designed for candidates who want further recognition of their skills in order to progress their careers, to make the most of their computers or just to validate their knowledge. The new qualification is a natural progression from the ECDL but also a major upgrade, as the syllabus covers a much wider field. It requires practised and established use of the many different facilities to complete. The level of competence certified can only be gained through detailed knowledge and in-depth understanding of computer use.

As for the ECDL, it, too, will continue its outstanding success story. There are now over 2000 Accredited Test Centres with approximately 50 new ones being added each month. Registration of new candidates is currently running at between 18,000 and 20,000 per month and one million people in the UK have undertaken studies for the qualification so far.

For more information on the ECDL please visit the website (www.ecdl.co.uk).

Supplied by courtesy of David Clarke, Chief Executive, British Computer Society