30/01/2008

London - January 28th 2008

According to e-skills UK, British employers need more than 7.6 million employees to improve their IT skills and more than 8 million employees have had no formal IT training. However, employers and employees are often confused by the plethora of IT qualifications available.

At the launch of an ITQ initiative by the online education service ALISON (http://alison.com) Sean Griffin, Learner Outreach Manager, ALISON, commented that “what employers and employees want is a coherent certification programme that recognizes skills acquired on the job”. He went on: “At ALISON, we believe that ITQ is a straightforward solution for raising the IT user skills of the workforce.”

The ITQ is made up of a series of units that can be tailored to the specific needs of employers in different fields, and to the individual needs and roles of each employee. It does not involve learning skills that won’t be needed or used.

Griffin further commented: “ALISON, as a leading provider of ECDL training, is happy to report that ECDL Syllabus 4.5 is a major contributing qualification for the ITQ”. He believes this is significant as ECDL training is eligible for funding via the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

Indeed, according to Chief Academic Officer at ALISON, Martin Galvin, full LSC Level 2 funding can be accessed by offering an ITQ based on ECDL: “As a Level 2 NVQ (National Vocational Qualifications) the ITQ is able to access funds such as Train to Gain which may be closed to other qualifications”. It seems ITQ’s importance within the e-skills UK Sector Skills Agreement and Sector Qualification Strategy is reflected in the priority which the LSC gives to its funding.

For more information on the ITQ and the ECDL programme, please contact the ALISON team.

Complete details on the ITQ is available at: http://alison.com/courses/ITQ

ENDS