Website
PR contact
Subscribe to RSS 
Email this story to a friend Firebrand Training News Desk
BCS: stop letting the IT community down
urgent action needed to change organisation’s image to help it support UK’s IT professionals and boost numbers of future industry recruits
The British Computing Society (BCS) must urgently revamp its strategy for supporting the UK’s IT professionals, or accept it no longer has a place in today’s industry.
This call to action comes from Firebrand Training, which is concerned about the lack of awareness within the industry of becoming a chartered IT professional. Recent research run by the Accelerated Learning pioneer found that 91% of IT professionals are unaware of the BCS’ CITP accreditation scheme.
Firebrand Training is urging the BCS to change its strategy: get rid of its image as an academic organisation and become more of an advisory network, which can provide more information on the practical realities of starting and developing a successful career in IT. This could be achieved through a total image overhaul – starting with a name change to bring the organisation into the 21st century.
Executive quote
“It’s an open secret that in its current form, BCS has no real connection to the UK’s IT community or those looking to start a career in IT,” said Robert Chapman, CEO, Firebrand Training. “The organisation has reached a crossroads – either continue as an academic organisation that is viewed as fusty and irrelevant by the majority of IT professionals, or overhaul the aims and objectives of the organisation to help spearhead a campaign to revitalise the industry and bring in bigger numbers of new joiners.”
“The irony is that if the academics leading BCS had done more over the past 50 years to push their students to the CITP, we could be looking at a booming and competitive industry filled with chartered experts – similar to the accountancy and surveyancy industries,” Chapman continued. “This will only be achieved through dynamic action – starting with a name change and image overhaul.”
About the company
Firebrand Training is challenging the way in which professional training is delivered.
Firebrand Training, formerly known as The Training Camp, pioneered Accelerated Learning courses for busy IT professionals. The organisation has been the UK’s IT Training Company of the Year for the past three years.
Students spend up to fourteen days on a residential training site and receive an average of 170 hours intense tuition. It is an attractive proposition for contractors, whose time commands very high premiums, and employers who need to minimise staff absence. Firebrand Training has an above average pass rate of 85% - confounding critics’ claims that Accelerated Learning fails to produce results.
Firebrand Training was founded by Robert Chapman and Stefano Capaldo in Summer 2001 as The Training Camp as a UK franchise. Stefano was a former student in the US and rated the company’s approach so highly that he decided to launch a programme of courses in the UK. The organisation has since been recognised by Microsoft as a Gold Partner for Learning Solutions (MCPLS) and over 6,000 students have been trained in the UK to date. The success of the company enabled the management team to end the existing franchise relationship and relaunch as Firebrand Training.
Firebrand Training offers a range of courses covering all major vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, CompTIA, and Linux, as well as specialist certifications in the areas of security, developer skills, project and business process management.
Contact details
Account Manager at LEWIS:
Email: firebrandtraining@lewispr.com
Technorati tags: Firebrand Training | British Computing Society | skills shortage |
Bookmarklets:
