DS CWA 16052-2:2013

ICT Certification in Europe - Part 2: ICT Certification in Action

Scope

ICT Certification in Action has been one of a series of ICT skills projects conducted be CEN, the European standards body for ICT, under its CEN Workshop Agreement process. It follows the earlier research project HARMONISE led by CEPIS, and the CEN project ICT Certification in Europe which produced CWA 16052 in 2009. The main aim of this follow-on project has been to support implementation of that CWA.
The project ran from May 2010 to July 2011, including a two month public consultation period.
It covers both vendor and independent qualifications for ICT professionals. 11 million such certifications have been issued by over 100 certification providers covering 1300 types of certification. This situation of many overlapping qualifications has been described as a -certification jungle, with poor information, lack of clarity, confusing to candidates and employers, to the detriment of the labour market. It has also been described as a parallel universe disconnected from national education systems. A third view sees certifications as a part of the vital ecosystem supporting the associated ICT product and labour markets.
But these views are now seen as outdated, as there are many examples of successful convergence. The earlier project developed a new view of the market structure for ICT certification, embracing all participants. This new understanding sees education, training, certification, and experience as mutually supporting components of lifelong learning and professionalism. CWA 16052 proposed measures to encourage such convergence and to support operation of the certification market. In particular, certification should be seen as a vital part of education and lifelong learning.
This follow-on ICT Certification in Action project aimed to:
- Deploy its proven methodology to maintain and extend the series of country maps showing the main certification stakeholders in each market in Europe
- Provide updated metrics on the current state of play of the main certifications in those major markets, with a methodology for annual updates
- Trial and evaluate the possibilities and options to implement a methodology for positioning ICT certifications onto the e-Competence Framework (e-CF) and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), and to redevelop a navigation chart positioning the major certifications (including mutual recognition and linkage to the qualification system through accreditation)
- Pilot test the proposed European model for ICT certification schemes
- Co-operate with ISO and other CEN initiatives in this field
More specifically, the ICT Certification in Action project has been structured with seven main objectives:
Objective 1: National landscape maps
Objective 2: Annual metrics process
Objective 3: CompTIA Roadmap
Objective 4: Vendor engagement: Compliance with CWA 16052
Objective 5: Consistency with ISO
Objective 6: Promotion and dissemination
Objective 7: Integration with other CEN projects
The remainder of this Final Report describes progress on these seven objectives, followed by some conclusions.
The project has put particular emphasis on stakeholder involvement. The e-Skills ILB Certification Council had been a principal sponsor of this project and an important communication channel to the vendors. Its demise in 2010 has made it necessary for the project to develop new direct channels.
Individual meetings with vendors were organised such as Microsoft in London, Dublin, and Bonn; CompTIA in London and Bonn; EXIN in the Netherlands and London; Cisco in Spain and Germany; SEI in Frankfurt and Pittsburgh; and ESI in Bilbao and Sofia. A full list of workshops and meetings is included in Annex I(...)