EUROPEAN CERTIFICATE FOR IT PROFESSIONALS (EUCIP)
INFORMATION PACKAGE
Contents
1. The Concept
2. The European IT Skills Gap
3. Knowledge Areas
4. The Syllabus
5. Study Time
6. The Question and Test Base (QTB)
7. EUCIP Programming Language (EPL)
8. The Glossary
9. Testing Functions
10. Rollout During 2003
11. Learning Providers
12. Test Demonstration for Learning Providers
Contact Information
References
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1. The EUCIP Concept
EUCIP1 (European Certification of Informatics Professionals) is a development by CEPIS2 (Council of European Professional Informatics Societies). A fundamental CEPIS Mission is to contribute to high levels of professionalism and skills among Europe’s IT practitioners and users. The British Computer Society (BCS) 3 is the national UK operator licensed to run the EUCIP scheme in the United Kingdom.
EUCIP is aimed at IT professionals and practitioners. The qualification is aimed at people with professional IT experience but have no qualifications, individuals who have completed a non-IT education (at all levels), as well as younger students interested in entering the IT industry. Successful achievement of the Certificate will demonstrate proficiency, and endorse candidate’s skills and capabilities. It aims to give a substantial breadth and depth of knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge in the workplace.
The Certificate furnishes candidates with the underpinning knowledge of IT necessary to build further academic qualifications upon. Specialisation of competence may be further developed within a vocational structure corresponding to specific IT positions in the marketplace.
The overall goals of EUCIP are:
• To define an industry-driven vocational structure and standards for the IT profession
• To establish a sustainable European services network for IT competence development
• To contribute to closing the IT Skills Gap in Europe
• To offer a vehicle for Life-Long Learning and competency enhancement for the IT profession
2. The European IT Skills Gap
It is recognised that there is an IT Skills Gap in Europe, consisting of both a competence gap in the existing workforce as well as a shortage of available professionals.
Despite the economic slowdown, the gap is still a European-wide competitive issue to be reckoned with. Although several studies reveal that original estimates should be reduced by 50% due to the slowdown, the current Skills Gap is still in the area of 600-700,000 jobs in Western Europe. This Skills Gap is expected to increase substantially as the economy picks up.
For example IDC4 expects that the shortage of skilled networking professionals in Western Europe will increase from approximately 200,000 in 2000 to just below 500,000 in 2005, representing a shortage of 25%.
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Through the EUCIP program, the number of individuals undergoing certification is expected to increase to more than 200,000 by 2006, a substantial contribution to the closing of the European Skills Gap.
3. Knowledge Areas
1. The Certificate is based on a set of competency requirements that are compulsory, spanning all three life cycles of IT: “plan”, “build” and “operate”. The combination of all three areas defines the IT knowledge that is presumed necessary in order to be an IT-practitioner. It is not sufficient to practise an IT-vocation but serves as a basis for all types of IT-related work. Study hours entail 400 hours for the student and the three knowledge areas are given approximately equal weight.
The three knowledge areas: “Plan”, “Build” and “Operate”.
1. The “Plan” knowledge area. This knowledge area addresses the analysis of IT needs and planning the usage of IT. The knowledge area is tightly linked to business processes and defining IT needs in terms of business strategies. Traditional business elements such as return on investment, risk and financing are important elements of the knowledge area.
2. The “Build” knowledge area. This knowledge area encompasses the specification, development and acquisition of IT. The crux of the knowledge area is traditional technical aspects of systems development, implementation, integration and the IT life cycle in general.
3. The “Operate” knowledge area. The “Operate” knowledge area addresses instalment, supervision and maintenance of IT. Typical domains are Network Management, upgrading, support functions etc.
4. The Syllabus
The Syllabus describes the competency and knowledge requirements within the three knowledge areas. The Syllabus has the following structure:
The Syllabus consists of three “Plan”, “Build”, “Operate” Knowledge Areas Within each knowledge area, a number Defined as a comprehensive unit of of knowledge comprising 50-150 study Units hours. The intention is that a unit or a collection of units will correspond to individual Learning Provider courses. Within each unit, a number of A category is a conceptually Categories homogenous subject matter. There will typically be 5-10 categories per unit. Within each category, a number of The collection of topics that cover the Topics main aspects of each category. Table 1. The Syllabus structure
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For each topic in the Syllabus, a number of outcomes are listed. The outcomes state what an individual should be able to describe or perform, once a topic has been mastered.
Skill category Level Examples of descriptive words for outcomes “Know” To have knowledge Describe, define, recognise, differentiate, name “Understand and To understand, comprehend Calculate, demonstrate, apply” explain, formulate, give examples To use, apply Decide, use, classify, construct, choose, perform, test, fulfil, practise Analyse and combine To analyse Find, identify, register, compare, prove To synthesise Abstract, propose, combine, conclude, organise, collect To evaluate Evaluate, control, judge, point out Table 2. Descriptive taxonomy for expressing outcomes
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5. Study Time
The typical study time for the entire syllabus is set at 400 hours. Study time is defined as the time spent by the student in acquiring the competence, regardless of how this is acquired, through self-study, lectures or e-learning services. The hours are however meant to reflect an average spent on well-proven and efficient learning/teaching principles, such as employed by e.g. universities, colleges, and reputable training providers. Thus a candidate who wants to document real and non- formally acquired competence may have spent substantially more time e.g. learning by experience.
The table below gives an overview of how study time might typically be distributed among syllabus units.
No. Units Study hours A. PLAN KNOWLEDGE AREA 130 A.1 Organisations and their use of IT 30 A.2 Management of IT 20 A.3 IT economics 15 A.4 Internet and the New Economy 15 A.5 Project Management (PM) 20 A.6 Presentation and communications techniques 15 A.7 Legal and ethical issues 15 B. BUILD KNOWLEDGE AREA 140 B.1 Systems Development processes and methods 30 B.2 Data Management and databases 30 B.3 Programming 60 B.4 User interface and web design 20 C. OPERATE KNOWLEDGE AREA 130 C.1 Computing components and architecture 20 C.2 Operating Systems 20 C.3 Communications and networks 20 C.4 Network services 30 C.5 Wireless and mobile computing 10 C.6 Network Management 10 C.7 Service delivery and support 20 TOTAL 400 Table 3. Study time breakdown
6. The EUCIP Question and Test Base (QTB)
The QTB is the realisation of the Syllabus as a collection of multiple choice questions to be used in the testing of candidates. The questions form the basis for producing tests, implemented in an automated testing system, which is accessed via the web.
An automated test will consist of 40-45 questions, to be answered in one hour.
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7. EUCIP Programming Language (EPL)
EPL is designed to accommodate the need to test basic understanding of programming. It is based on a subset of C, and is consistent with programming constructs found in contemporary programming languages such as Java and C++.
It is believed that even with this simplified syntax most of the aspects of programming related to algorithmic understanding, syntactic understanding and the flavour of contemporary programming have been retained.
It is expected that candidates at the “Build” unit will be able to understand and answer questions that utilize EPL. Candidates are permitted to use a reference copy of the syntax when undergoing testing.
10. The EUCIP Glossary
A Glossary of terms on which Candidates can expect to be examined will be available to accredited Learning Providers. Some 370 terms have so far been defined to explain terminology within the Question and Test Base.
11. Testing Functions
On-line testing will be available to students through associated Learning Providers and Test Centres. Certification tests are a prerequisite to achieving the EUCIP Certificate.
The tests are done on the World Wide Web, utilising the Teststation test engine from Enlight5. Test sites must have PC’s available with relevant technical infrastructure, which satisfy the appropriate technical requirements.
The technical requirements to the client are as follows:
o Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP operating system o 64 Mb memory o Screen resolution minimum 800x600 pixels and 16 bpp (65k colours) o Web browser, which supports Java 1.1 (e.g.. Internet Explorer 4.x or Netscape Navigator 4.06 or higher) o 64 kbps or faster link to Internet. This bandwidth should be dedicated to testing (no other traffic). o TCP/IP protocol o Performer questions need Internet Explorer 4.x (not applicable to EUCIP currently) o Port 80 (http) must be open for traffic o User must locally load Java Applets o No cache in proxy o DNS requests must work on client
12. Rollout During 2003
The EUCIP rollout plan for 2003 involves a pan-European English version in Germany, UK, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Finland and Greece.
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13. Learning Providers
EUCIP qualification scheme will involve a substantial number of existing Learning Providers, both IT-vendor and vendor-independent providers, to supply teaching and competence development. These Learning Providers will be accredited by the British Computer Society (BCS), and individual courses and teaching services will be certified to be compliant with the standards set by the BCS.
14. Test Demonstration for Learning Providers
The test demonstration is supplied to give you a flavour of the EUCIP examination, i.e. the type of questions and level of difficulty from each of the knowledge areas "Plan", "Build" and "Operate". The test consists of 18 questions, and can be found at: http://www.eucip.com/demo.htm.
Contact information
The British Computer Society 1 Sanford Street Swindon SN1 1HJ
Development Manager: Tracy Kurzeja Tel: 01793 417 603 Fax:01793 480 270 Email :[email protected] URL: http://www.bcs.org
References
1 EUCIP web-site: www.eucip.com 2 CEPIS web-site: www.cepis.org 3 BCS web-site: www.bcs.org.uk 4 Networking Skills Shortage in Western Europe. IDC web-site: www.idc.com 5 Enlight web-site: www.enlight.net
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