Qualified priviledge

• Article 76 of 77
• Information Age, December 2009
• View the original article online

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“It’s very nice if someone’s got it, since it’s a damn good qualification,” says Alastair Behenna, CIO of recruitment consultant Harvey Nash. “The core elements of the MBA are outstanding, and I’m very interested in talking to someone with an MBA.”

However, in common with many CIOs, too many qualifications actually put him off. “You have to ask yourself how much time they’ve actually been working if they have this string of qualifications,” Behenna says.

Smaller companies, particularly those focused on development, aren’t necessarily so keen on certifications and qualifications.

When hiring software developers, for example, Jamie Turner, IT director of address information service Postcode Anywhere, looks mostly for interest in technical matters and a degree in computer science. These two will provide the flexibility necessary to adapt, he says.

Indeed, getting all of his developers together in one room to investigate a new technology can be a valuable team-building exercise. Furthermore, he says, when it comes to new technology, there are sometimes no training courses that offer more than what’s available on a website. “It’s usually better to give them the time to do their own research on the Internet than send them on a course,” Turner explains.

Technical topics
Most qualifications and certifications, however, are now becoming important signs of skills in specific areas. Within the security world, over the past few years, the range of security qualifications available to everyone from school-leavers to seasoned professionals has blossomed.

Many universities, including Royal Holloway, London Metropolitan, Leicester, Greenwich, Glamorgan, Birmingham, UCL and Westminster, now offer MSc courses in information security. The School of Information Risk Management (www.sirm.ac) operates some of these MSc courses and offers a post-graduate diploma in information security and assurance (ISA) leading to an MSc at Anglia Ruskin University.

The MCSE: Security (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) and CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor) qualifications are becoming increasingly popular, while the Certificate of Ethical Hacking is a “very hot topic”, according to recruitment firm Computer People’s James Ramsdale, as is CISSP (Certified information security professional), as they teach the ways in which hackers work when trying to break into systems.

However, according to Vernon Poole, (CISM) head of business consultancy for IT consultancy Sapphire and a member of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA)’s Information Security Management Committee, most adverts for information security professionals over the past five years have requested a CISM (certified information security manager) qualification.

This covers five main areas: information security governance; risk management; information security programme management; information security management; and response management. So much has CISM begun to dominate qualifications, ISACA has developed a new qualification for higher-level jobs: Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT).

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