The Irish Computer Society (ICS) has launched the inaugural IT Professionals’ Day at in event in its Dublin HQ.
The aim of the day is to “celebrate the role and the contribution of IT professionals to society,” said Jim Friars, CEO, ICS.
Friars highlighted an issue in communicating with and coordinating IT professionals in Ireland because they are spread across multiple industries and sectors, not confined to the technology sector itself. He cited Forfas statistics which said that in 2012, there were 68,280 IT professionals in at work in Ireland, whereas that is expected to hit 91,000 by 2018.
The IT Professionals Day is not just about celebrating the role, Friars said that it is also about encouraging IT pros to contribute and to do more to promote careers in the area. On the ICS web site, participants are asked to show their support by agreeing with a number of statements.
Champion, commit, contribute
IT pros are asked to champion computing skills by saying that they agree that “every student should have the opportunity to learn computing skills in school”.
They are asked to commit to the IT Professionals Code of Conduct.
“IT professionals have a duty,” says ICS, “to observe the highest standards of integrity and to uphold the good standing of the profession. The ICS Code of Professional Conduct is based on the key pillars of protection of public interest and legal compliance, responsibility to employers and clients, professional dignity and promotion of professional aims and competence, ethics and impartiality.”
IT pros are also asked to contribute to the profession and society, and specifically to ascent to contribute time and expertise to a worthy cause within the next 12 months.
Professionalism
Professionalism in ICT was a topic also highlighted by Andre Richier, a principal administrator, European Commission. While highlighting the contribution made by various grades of IT professionals to the economies of the EU28 countries, Richier acknowledged the “immaturity of the profession, when compared with other professions”, which he asserted has a direct bearing on the skills supply.
Richier said that there are three main challenges for the profession, firstly that there is a poor public perception of ICT education and training, jobs and careers. Secondly, and consequently, that there are insufficient people entering ICT careers, but also having an impact in general, is the “disturbing rate of ICT project failures”.
“We don’t want a heavily regulated profession, as this will kill innovation,” said Richier, but there is a pressing need to improve the maturity of the profession.
A key mechanism in these efforts, said Richier, is the European e-Competence Framework 3.0. This is described as a shared European language to close the e-skills gap for ICT practitioners.
More than STEM
When looking at encouraging people into ICT careers, Peter Davitt, CEO, FIT, said that the tech sector is a “broad church”, “it’s not all about STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Davitt said that the often relentless focus on maths skills as a foundation for a career in ICT was discouraging many people who might otherwise consider such a career. Not only that, Davitt argued that a broader range of skills, not just advanced maths skills, are generally what characterise a successful IT pro.
IT pros can do more to promote technology in enterprise, especially through better communication, said Tim Hynes, CEO of Three Pillars Leadership. A former head of IT for Microsoft, Hynes said, “it staggers me how many IT pros couldn’t tell what cloud computing is”.
Hynes said that individuals are adopting new technologies faster than businesses, but in business in it is the IT pro that people turn to for an understanding of the trends. If the IT pros are unable to communicate, or are unconvinced of, the value of these technologies then they can often appear as an impediment to adoption.
The IT Professionals Day is part of a large ICS initiative, Tech Week, which runs from 27 April. Now in its second year, Tech Week is a “nationwide festival of technology aimed at students, parents and the public”, that “provides hands-on opportunities to learn about how computing and related technology are shaping every area of life.”
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