Ely, England, 19 April 2011 – gasq and IT Governance (ITG) are today jointly launching the International Board for IT Governance Qualifications (IBITGQ) to help improve and standardise the global range and quality of training for IT governance professionals.
Werner Henschelchen, General Manager of gasq, says: ‘There are a number of training organisations across Europe which are interested in delivering accredited training courses around information security management, business resilience and IT governance. The new IBITGQ framework will define structured learning paths from foundation courses through to advanced and expert-level qualifications. Qualifications will initially be built around the implementation and audit skills required for best-practice management standards, such as ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27005, BS25999 and ISO/IEC 38500.’
IBITGQ will develop and publish syllabuses for each of the qualifications that it establishes, as it establishes them, and these syllabuses will be freely available from the IBITGQ website, www.ibitgq.org, which is currently under development and will be launched within the next two weeks.
‘Open examinations for all IBITGQ courses will be available online through gasq and at the end of accredited training courses, through accredited exam centres. We have already accredited IT Governance Ltd for the delivery of training leading to the first two IBITGQ certifications’, adds Werner Henschelchen.
Alan Calder, Chief Executive of IT Governance, says: ‘It’s hard to assess the relative quality and value of many training courses without standardised testing and external accreditation by established examination bodies. IT governance, information security and business resilience are increasingly important to organisations worldwide. We believe that a formal qualification scheme will provide a framework for professionals within the industry to develop the range of interconnected skills that employers will need in the years ahead.’
IBITGQ, an association working non-for-profit incorporated under German law, draws initially on gasq’s international expertise in the accreditation of training providers, provision of examinations and certification of personnel, and the well-regarded IT governance, information security and compliance training expertise of IT Governance Ltd. IBITGQ is actively recruiting additional board members from the industry and will be developing relationships with relevant industry bodies in the UK, across Europe and in North America.
Those training organisations that wish to deliver IBITGQ-accredited training courses will be able to use the published syllabuses and range of supporting materials to develop their own capability to the point that they and their courses can be accredited. There will also be a range of supporting manuals, training and examination guides, and approved courseware to simplify the route to accreditation for training organisations and to help candidates prepare for the examinations. Everything that a training organisation might need in order to prepare for accreditation, and more, will be available from the IBITGQ website.
The first two IBITGQ-accredited courses are the Certified ISMS ISO27001 Lead Implementer and the Certified ISMS ISO27001 Lead Auditor courses. The first ATO delivering these courses is IT Governance Ltd, and the first courses will take place in London in May.
‘Continuing professional development is critical for IT governance, information security and business resilience professionals today’, adds Werner Henschelchen, ‘and, for this reason, we will be working with IT Governance and members of the IBITGQ board to develop a CPD scheme that will ensure that employers continue to value the IBITGQ range of certifications. All members of the broad IT governance industry are welcome to join IBITGQ, which can be done (for a small annual fee) by going to the association’s website when it is launched.’
