A recent study by Glasgow University revealed that employees spend up to one month a year trying to learn a new software programme or solve tech problems in the office. This information might be surprising but it only emphasises the importance of information technology (IT) in our daily lives, be it professional or personal.
The same study also mentioned that half of employers believe their employees’ lack of IT skills adversely affects business productivity. Consequently, employers realise how vital it is to have employees trained up in this area – regardless of whether they are IT or non-IT personnel.
Business benefits
For those IT professionals, it is essential to keep updated on the latest technological developments, especially since it is such a fast-moving industry, says Azzli bin Jamain, Director, Creative and Professional Services Division of Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA). “Infocomm professionals need to stay at the forefront of technological advancements and continuously upgrade to prevent obsolescence of their skills in the dynamic infocomm industry.”
Organisations in Singapore have a virtual smorgasbord of programmes to choose from, through a variety of service providers and some of these programmes are tied in with the government’s national employment and training strategy. Companies can apply for subsidies of up to $20,000. (See sidebox).
The Institute of Systems Science (ISS) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) for example, offers more than 30 professional courses for the IT industry. Some popular programmes include Project Management for Information Systems, Business Process Reengineering, and Certification in IT Project Management.
There is also an increasing interest in programming modules for mobile platforms, says Jamain of WDA. Other technical courses in demand include software and application development courses in .Net, Java as well as technology management courses such as IT governance and technopreneurship.
Post-course surveys conducted by ISS have shown that there is a clear business case for IT training. For example, 96% of all participants responded that they were able to apply the taught skills to their work, says Lim Swee Cheang, Director & CEO of ISS, NUS. “Also, 95% responded that they were able to perform better at their jobs after the training.”
Experts agree that IT training should be part of a company’s larger plan to foster talent, and should not be developed in isolation. Indeed, Lim advises companies to maintain a “holistic approach” to developing IT talent; he explains it is best to define the organisation’s strategy and the employee’s job competency, and “analyse the competency gap and develop a curriculum design”.
Subsequently, experts also say that it is essential for organisations to monitor if the training courses have been effective in improving employee skills. Indeed, a study by IT and business skills provider, Global Knowledge revealed that 21% of businesses in the UK failed to monitor their ROI in training – they did not check if their IT training programmes have been effective.
Lim of ISS concludes: “Equally important, after the course has been delivered is to measure the training effectiveness and achievement of the organisation’s goals.”
To date, more than 65 courses of WDA have been taught by its partner organisations while over 3,000 participants from 400 organisations have received training from ISS.
|
Case study
Agilent Technologies develops IT talent
Agilent Technologies, a test and measurement company with businesses in Life Sciences, Chemical Analysis and Electronic Measurement, provides IT training for all its employees, whether it be to update them on basic IT knowledge or for specialised study.
Lawrence Fu, Singapore IT Site Host Manager and Global IT Applications Support Manager for Agilent Technologies, notes that the training given to IT employees is “specific to their function” and a training and development plan is drawn up at the start of the year for each IT employee with their managers.
Fu says that the organisation sends its IT employees to at least one training course every six months to a year; the course could be related to their job function or it could help them learn or improve skills needed on a specific project. He gives as an example an IT engineer in the applications area who would probably take courses in Oracle, a database management system.
He adds that IT personnel are also required to learn from the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) - a widely accepted approach to IT service management. This teaches them how to “provide good IT services to customers as well as understand IT as a service for customers”.
Agilent Technologies also provides annual web-based IT training for all employees, such as the IT Security Awareness Test. According to Fu, this test is relevant for all employees as it teaches them to protect company information, such as taking care of documents of sensitive nature and encrypting hard disks in order to minimise the loss of data.
|
|
NICF promotes IT training
In order to help strengthen and increase relevant skills of IT professionals, the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore jointly produced the National Infocomm Competency Framework (NICF) offering specialised training and development programmes to organisations. NICF courses are taught by partner organisations and are for IT professionals working in IT and non-IT sectors.
The NICF is used by WDA as part of its Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) system to cater to skills upgrading, manpower conversion and overall manpower development for the infocomm industry. Participants who complete the course will be given a WDA accredited certificate that is nationally recognised.
Also, in order to prompt organisations to offer IT training to their employees, the WDA is subsidising course fees. Jamain of WDA explains that under the NICF Skills Talent and Recognition Scheme (NICF-STAR), companies can get subsidies up to S$20,000 which can be used to improve various areas in IT learning and development, such as developing job profiles, setting up performance assessment and appraisal frameworks, as well asnd in-house training curriculum.
|
HRM Asia welcomes your contribution. Your IP address is recorded in the event of
a complaint.