| The cornerstone of all NWCET products is the IT Skill Standards. In September of 1999, the NWCET published an updated version of Building a Foundation for Tomorrow: Skill Standards for Information Technology: The Millennium Edition. The Millennium Edition underwent extensive industry review and validation by CIOs, IT and Human Resource professionals and managers who employ IT workers. The updated IT Skill Standards include emerging careers such as e-commerce and provide guidance on IT professional certification and assessment. The National Skill Standards Board gave the Center its prestigious NSSB Recognition Award to honor the Millennium Edition.
What Are Skill Standards?
Skill Standards establish the agreed-upon, industry-identified knowledge, skills, and abilities required to succeed in the workplace. Skill Standards provide benchmarks of skill and performance attainment that are behavioral and measurable. Skill Standards answer two critical questions:
- What do workers need to know and be able to do to succeed in today?s workplace?
- How do we know when workers are performing well?
Without this fundamental information, employers do not know who to hire or how to evaluate employees, employees and new entrants to the workforce do not know what is expected of them, and educators do not know how to prepare students for the challenges of the workplace.
Why Use Skill Standards?
Skill Standards address the global shift to an economy based on knowledge and information, and the need for higher levels of skill within the workforce. Like never before, education is challenged to restructure itself to prepare that new workforce. A well-established Skill Standards system is a proven way of addressing educational gaps. Skill Standards have several important benefits:
- Industry-identified Skill Standards can serve as a vehicle for companies to communicate their performance expectations for workers. Skill Standards provide a common framework for communication of workplace expectations between business, education, workers, students, and government.
- Skill Standards can facilitate the reform of education to align programs and curriculum to workplace requirements. Competency-based standards will assure the employability of students who have completed programs based on those standards. National recognition of Skill Standards will provide a common basis for certifying achievement against those standards, thereby allowing the portability of skills across companies and careers.
- Skill Standards help close the qualification gap by linking industry expectations for knowledge, skills, and abilities to the education offered to students. With identified Skill Standards, students know what they need to be able to do to meet industry expectations, workers understand what competent performance is in their field, and educators can confidently shape educational offerings around clearly defined competencies.
To preview and/or order Building a Foundation for Tomorrow: Skill Standards for Information Technology, see the Online Product Catalog.
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