An examination of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) version 7

Abstract The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) is a popular international skills framework for the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector for which version 7 was released in June 2018. This paper provides an overview of this most recent version of the framework and compares it to the previous version, version 6. Some potential issues with the framework are then discussed, perhaps the most important of which is that version 7 is not backwards compatible with version 6, which can lead to undesirable results when two users of the framework (e.g. an employer and job applicant) interact with one using version 6 and the other using version 7. Other issues examined are the lack of universal certification criteria for objective assessment of skills (which affects the portability of the framework between users), the complexity of the framework in terms of skill/proficiency mapping, the representation of soft or transferable skills and the limited scope for automating skill management tasks. Some solutions to these issues are offered, including structuring the skill definitions to include mappings between different SFIA versions and creating mappings to recognised formal qualifications, industry certifications and job experience.