Member Article

Matching IT skills to your business needs

With Suzanne McCreedy of Business Link

With an increasing reliance on information technology (IT) within businesses, it is important that employees are equipped with the right skills and experience to operate systems effectively to avoid any impact on productivity.

The challenge that many businesses face is identifying which IT skills their company requires, which skills already exist within their workforce and what new skills are needed.

There are many different types of IT equipment used by businesses and therefore a range of skills are required to operate them. The most commonly used across many types of businesses are those concerned with ‘office skills’, where staff will typically be required to use typical office based applications such as word processing, spreadsheets and databases. The most widely used IT skills qualification in the UK of this type is the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL).

Business Link has a helpful online guide available at www.businesslink.gov.uk/northeast where businesses can go to find out more about how the ECDL framework can be used to train and develop employees in IT.

A training needs analysis (TNA) can be a good way for businesses to determine the IT training needs of their employees and will help ensure training is cost-effective and better received. The purpose of TNA is to: decide whether training is really neccessary; find any causes of poor performance; decide on the content and scope of training and to define the required training outcomes.

Once you have determined the IT skills your employees already possess and those which your company requires in order to grow and develop, you will need to decide on how best to address the skills gap. Business Link has an online guide outlining all the basic IT skills your business may need and the courses that are available to help develop them.

Business Link also has a team of expert skills brokers who offer advice, help and information to individuals and companies across the region, giving them access to the ‘business brains’ who will help to grow their company and enhance their skills. For further information about Business Link visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/northeast or call 0845 600 9 006.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by BENE .