PajMon Information Blog

In the summer of 2007, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) launched the new version of its best practice framework for Service Management – known as ITIL (R) V3 – and since then, has been busy putting its new qualifications scheme into place. The new top-level certification for the latest version is known as the ITIL Expert qualification.

It appears from figures recently published regarding the take-up of ITIL training however, that the new scheme may be already scuppered before it starts. The figures show a high demand for the V3 Foundation course, but almost no demand for the newer capabilities and lifecycle courses.

The large number of courses now required to be completed and corresponding examinations to be passed in order to obtain the expert qualification may, to a large extent, be responsible for the low demand at the intermediate level. The older V2 Service Sanager certificate could be completed, start to finish, in only 13 days whereas the new ITIL Expert qualification would now take up to 27 days to finish.

The version 3 scheme has 3 levels and an additional 4th level is planned. Is all this training really what people actually want and need or could it be just another money-spinner for the scheme administrators and the training providers? The answer from the market seems to be that the new courses are not wanted -at least for the present.

Also, whilst the old V2 qualifications scheme is still running, it makes little sense for people to pursue the new route to the professional qualification when you can also get it through the V2 route simply by doing a bridging course at the end. And this track is not only cheaper, but quicker and more convenient for most people.

So APMG really need to get their thinking-caps on to determine what can be done to rectify the situation. One thing that really needs to be considered soon is the shutting-down of the version 2 scheme. Thats what needs to happen as a matter of some urgency if the new scheme is to be taken more seriously by delegates and training providers alike.

Comments are closed.