Professional Qualifications
Increasingly, organisations are looking for ways of identifying individuals' competence in a formal and standard manner - this is particularly true for large multi-national organisations. One such way is through professional qualifications.
A professional qualification scheme based on the philosophy and content of ITIL is available. The way in the scheme is structured and operated is documented on the
OGC Best Management Practice website. The scheme is administered under the authorityof the
APM Group, the Qualifications Board is formed of representatives from itSMF International, Examination Institutes, Accreditors and Publishers along with the Chief Examiner Sharon Taylor.
With the refresh of the ITIL Frameworks being published in 2007 there are currently a couple of ways to attain ITIL Qualifications, the older version 2 methods will be retired but a date for this has not yet been announced.
Version 2 qualifications (still available)
- Foundation Certificate: an entry-level qualification gained by taking a short multiple-choice exam - usually at the end of a 3-day course, but also available on-line through Thomson Prometrics and Pearson Vue testing centres.
- Practitioner's Certificates - for specific individual or combined disciplines, gained through passing a written assignment and/or a case-study based multiple-choice exam
- Manager's Certificate - requiring the passing of 2 three-hour written exam papers taken after attendance on an accredited 10 day training program.
Version 3 qualifications (some still in development)
Foundation Certificate: an entry-level qualification gained by taking a short multiple choice exam, based on the topics from the core books.
Service Capability modules:Based on working practices, more practical then theoretical, clustered topics to be chosen depending on specific interests or job role.More complex multiple choice exam.
Service Lifecycle modules:Based on the 5 core books, one qualification on each.More complicated multiple choice exam.
Managing through the lifecycle:An overview course so everyone has an overview of the whole lifecycle whether they have come via the lifecycle or capability routes to qualification.Complex multiple choice.
The qualifications are based on a credit scheme and once sufficient credits (22) have been achieved then the candidate can apply to be an ITIL Expert (title not yet finalised).
There will be an advanced level developed in time but currently not enough information is known (November 2007)
Bridging from Version 2 to Version 3
Any individual who has already achieved a qualification within version 2 can bridge that qualification to version 3 rather than starting with the Foundation level again.
Bridging will be available at Foundation, Practitioner and Managers level.
Foundation bridging is a one day course covering the new areas of syllabus, there is an exam at the end of the day in a multiple choice format.
Managers bridging courses will be available early in 2008 and will teach the new areas of the content.This will be a 4 day course with a complex, scenario based multiple choice exam on the final day.
Practitioners bridging is not yet finalised (November 2007) but it is thought that if a candidate has sufficient credits from version 2 then they will be able to take a bridging course, it will be up to the individual whether they feel they need to attend a course in order to do it.
As APM Group are the official accreditor for the OGC all other information on qualifications including examination bodies can be found on their
APM Group website.
APMG
The APM Group Limited (APMG) specialise in the accreditation and certification of organisations, processes and people. As Official Accreditor for the OGC, APMG now manage their entire portfolio of qualifications, including ITIL and Prince 2.
For general information about APM Group please contact:
Tel: +44 (0) 1494 452 450
Fax: +44 (0) 1494 459 559
Email: servicedesk@apmgroup.co.uk
Web: www.apmgroup.co.uk
Members will also find training organisations listed in the
Vendor Directory.
