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British Computer Society unveils bold revamp

By Maggie Holland

Posted on 22 Sep 2009 at 14:07

The British Computer Society (BCS) has unveiled a new website and brand identity, together with a range of new initiatives designed to raise IT competency and standards.

The BCS’ historic title will now be complemented by the moniker ‘The Chartered Institute for IT’, its chief executive David Clarke confirmed yesterday in an interview with our sister-site IT PRO.

"This is a major step change for us, with new branding to reinforce that this is different. This is a new BCS," he said.

"For us to deliver on our charter, what our members need and maximise our potential in the market we needed to do a number of things, most of which we’ve launched today," he added.

The BCS hopes to make it easier for employers to assess the chartered status of IT recruits through more granular competency validation and a new version of its CITP certification. In addition, it plans to create an Academy of Computing to boost the teaching of technology related subjects and encourage more children to take up a career in the IT industry.

“It needs to start at primary school and be integrated and be taught in a completely different way. At the moment we are discouraging young kids when they’re making career decisions from an IT career,” Clarke added.

“If you ask 12 or 13-year-olds what a career in IT is, they’ll say it’s working in an office because all they’re being taught is Word and Excel.”

The BCS doesn’t plan to stop there. It will provide support to companies looking to be more environmentally friendly. In addition, it hopes to partner with organisations around the world to extend the reach of its standards.

“We think we can make the British standard the global standard,” said Clarke. “We just need to enable it and the momentum will build.”

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User comments

Strictly speaking ...

... it's "BCS - The Chartered Institute for IT" (not "of IT"), and "BCS" (not "The BCS") for short, as the name "The British Computer Society" is really only used for the legal entity of the society itself.

By raimesh on 22 Sep 2009

Correction

BCS title now corrected. Apologies.

Barry Collins
Online Editor

By Barry_Collins on 22 Sep 2009

“If you ask 12 or 13-year-olds what a career in IT is, they’ll say it’s working in an office because all they’re being taught is Word and Excel.”

I work in an office! Where does the The Chartered Institute for IT expect us to work? The server cupboard? The basement?

By peterm2k on 22 Sep 2009

I suppose they chose "The Chartered Institute for IT" because "The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists" was already taken.

But does anyone care? They're as irrelevant now as they have been over the however many tens of years since they were founded. I don't think I've ever met a member of the BCS over that period!

By JohnGray7581 on 22 Sep 2009

Misleading image of IT

What they are saying is if 12-13 year olds are shown IT = MS Office, they won't ever look at CAD, Software development, 3D modelling, Animation, publishing etc. - education is portraying a very narrow employment view of IT.

Having said that, I quit the BCS because it was more concerned with my annual membership fee than any ability I might posess.
I object to "certificates for sale" on principle, having seen the contract market bloated with "MS Certified" morons who undercut all the competent workers, got a six-month contract, blagged it and fled.

By cheysuli on 22 Sep 2009

"The server cupboard?"

You keep your servers in a cupboard? ohhh, worrying......

By a_byrne22 on 23 Sep 2009

Well as it's full of servers there really isn't much space in that room now. There's the effective space of a cupboard.

By peterm2k on 23 Sep 2009

Bring back Java in schools!

By Mullaney18 on 25 Sep 2009

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