ICS news and events: October 2018

ICDL Workforce, conference season and a profile of an in demand speaker

Pro

17 October 2018

SureSkills and the Irish Computer Society tackle the ICT skills shortage

ICS welcomes SureSkills as national partner for ICDL Workforce

Technology is changing the workplace at an ever faster pace. Existing jobs are evolving, and new ones are appearing. One thing is certain: digital skills are vital in the workforce.

Maintaining Ireland’s competitive edge on a global scale and improving the future of education across the country is essential.

“Ireland is part of a global race for talent and that we are increasingly competing for inward investment and export opportunities on the basis of the quality of our workforce” – ICT Skills Action Plan 2014-2018.

Recognising the nationwide issue, the Irish Computer Society and SureSkills have made it their mission to ensure Ireland’s IT workforce is digitally-enabled and ready to take on the new challenges triggered by digitisation and digital disruption.

“Keeping pace with the latest technology used in your workplace can be a challenge. ICDL Workforce is part of the solution, letting you expand and update your digital skills. Its flexibility means that you can focus on the skills you need to advance your career,” said Jim Friars, CEO, Irish Computer Society.

Are you really as digitally skilled as you think?
“You might think you have the digital skills that you need, but there’s a high chance that you don’t! In Austria, a study showed that, while 84% of those asked felt that they had ‘very good’ or ‘good’ knowledge of the Internet, 49% scored badly in practical tests.

It can be bad for business to make optimistic assumptions about your team’s digital competence as well. ICDL can help you to assess, develop and certify your employees’ digital skills,” said Friars.

“Digital capability is increasingly the chief catalyst of business growth. It is critical to optimising the digital customer experience; driving innovation and delivering efficiency improvements,” says Mark Egan, chairman, SureSkills.

“ICDL Workforce provides organisations with a flexible solution to ensure that your employees have the digital skills that they need. We have a lot of experience working with businesses to help them optimise the talent they have. It is often core office IT skills that people need to improve on.

“Using ICDL Workforce, you can assess the existing skills of your employees and plan the training that is right for them and your organisation” continued Mark.

Why certification?
Certification is a reliable measure of a person’s digital skills. In a study in Switzerland, participants who held ICDL certificates performed 24% better in practical tests of their abilities than those without.

Incorporating learning materials and formal certification of digital skills in real-life scenarios ICDL Workforce offers flexible programmes that help businesses to develop their employees’ digital skills.

ICDL Workforce programmes are developed to the same internationally validated standards used by more than 24,000 businesses and organisations and 14 million candidates globally.

For more information about ICDL email icdl@sureskills.com or call (01) 240 22 77

Conference season is well and truly under way

The season kicked off with the IT Service Management conference on 11 September, with the theme of ‘embracing the future of service management’ hosted by itSMF Ireland. Sharing their visions of new developments in the coming years, our speakers included Frank Stapleton, IT transition analyst, AIB; Sameena Hassam, principal consultant, Capacitas; and Mark Kane, head of Information Solutions, Mainstream Renewable Power.

Next, Iasa Ireland hosted the IT architects conference on 21 September. Speakers such as Tim Willoughby, head of Digital Services and Innovation, An Garda Siochána and Gerry Moloney, head of Solution Architecture, NTMA, inspired the audience on the topic of ‘digital architecture’.

As you are reading this issue, the annual ICS Leaders Conference takes place on 11 October. It is the pinnacle of the year for our CIO Forum. This year’s theme is “Secure Leadership for the Digital Age”, focusing on leading enterprise IT organisations security in this digital age whilst tackling many challenges.

Looking ahead, the HISI conference on 6-7 November in Croke Park will bring attendees from public and private healthcare together with educators, IT professionals and leaders around the theme ‘sharing is caring’. Speakers will include David Cole, IBM Watson Healthcare Innovation Lead for Europe as well as Martin Curley, CIO of the HSE.

The conference season rounds off with the Public Sector IT conference on 5 December in the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Dublin 8.

Thank you to all those attending a conference with us this year. Special thanks go to our sponsors for facilitating these events.

Members can access all presentations from our conferences in their members’ area at ics.ie/signin

Book your place at the HISI conference at hisi.ie/conference and at the Public Sector IT conference at ics.ie/psit

Speaker Profile: Martin Curley CIO at HSE

The Healthcare Informatics Society of Ireland is pleased to announce their 22nd Annual Conference at Croke Park on 6-7 November. One of the keynote speakers will be Martin Curley.

Martin Curley is chief information officer of the Irish Health Services Executive (HSE) and CEO of eHealth Ireland, enabling the digital transformation of Ireland’s health service.

Curley has an impressive track record of building high-performance teams and consistently delivering new innovations and transformation projects. He has strong experience in public affairs and communications and has worked closely with the European Commission and national governments. Curley is a recognised leader in Open Innovation and is the founder of the Innovation Value Institute which engages in research and consulting contracts across a number of industries.

Curley’s achievements to date include the transformation of Intel’s IT organisation into a world-class IT capability; leading the start-up of Mastercard Advisors Digital Capability; establishing and growing a global network of 15 Intel IT Innovation centres; transforming Intel’s research reputation in Europe while creating trusted advisor relationships at Commissioner/DG level in EU.