Education, Training and Development
The BCS and IT Go Hand In Hand
Most membership organisations are currently in decline and you may think that would also be true of a respected IT institution set up in 1957. But you’d be wrong.
BCS represents a dynamic and fast-moving industry – and as such has bucked the trend of most membership organisations by continuing to grow very quickly. Why the success? Because BCS provides what its members want.
As the leading professional and learned society in the field of computers and information systems, BCS is recognised as the authoritative voice of those seeking excellence in computing and the guardian of best practice. This positioning means that BCS is called upon to provide advice, information and expertise to government and the IT industry – a voice for its members and the IT community as a whole.
The society’s many groups – 43 UK branches, 16 international sections, and 46 specialist groups – provide an ideal opportunity for members to network. This, of course, improves their industry knowledge, their industry standing and can also lead to enhanced career options.
Allied to these ‘invisible’ benefits are the very tangible professional benefits that membership of BCS offers. In fact, BCS gives its members a wide variety of assistance, embracing both professional and service driven benefits.
One of the most satisfying things an IT professional can enjoy is recognition, so with BCS membership viewed as an industry benchmark, this is an important benefit. Membership denotes excellence and integrity, both of which enhance career prospects.
Membership can take individuals directly into working life with a professional grade: Associate, Member and, at the pinnacle, Fellow for highly qualified and experienced practitioners. BCS membership is also a route to Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status, a professional credential that demonstrates both competence and a commitment to keep pace with advancing knowledge and the increasing expectations and requirements of the profession.
This progression is linked with BCS’s continuing professional development scheme which provides a recognised structure to improving and updating professional skills – a demonstrable assessment of abilities that would be valued by potential employers.
All this is supported by the Society’s internationally renowned professional qualifications and the subject-specific ISEB qualifications, all designed to help broaden the knowledge and skills sets of IT professionals.
On the information side, BCS members are also extremely well catered for. Members have access to a wide range of information from many sources, as the society publishes magazines, journals and books that cover all aspects of IT. Members receive a free copy of the bimonthly ITNOW – a crucial vehicle through which the BCS communicates with its membership and the wider IT community. It also publishes a magazine on the important area of IT security, Information Security Now, which is available as a virtual publication. The society also publishes a quarterly magazine, HINOW, for its very influential health informatics group and IT training, which is aimed at those working in the training field.
The BCS website (www.bcs.org) features many articles that cover major areas of IT interest and is regularly updated with new content on such subjects as security, programming and software issues, the future of computing, offshoring, social inclusion, video games and much more.
Members can also receive a free weekly digital copy of Computing magazine, the weekly electronic newsletter eBCS and can benefit from a wide range of free careers information – of which this publication is but one example. New specialist e-newsletters are being added regularly – BCS now publishes eBCS Security, eBCS Student, eBCS Young Professional, eBCS Elite, eBCS Project Management and eBCS Women.
Added to this, BCS has a varied selection of video and audio podcasts. These cover security and training issues as well as lighter IT subjects. As well as this, BCS regularly has video debates. Recent discussions have covered topics such as how IT can help during the recession, the IT skills shortage and e-learning.
A real-time industry news page supplies members with all the latest breaking industry news on careers and recruitment issues, research and development, legislation, the future of IT, IT in entertainment and IT in business. This is available via an RSS feed, as is general BCS news and new content in various areas.
Its new, free online member services allow BCS members to access a wide range of research papers, e-books and journals via the internet. Access is provided to an e-book library from Books 24/7, a selection of abstract and full-text article databases from Ebsco and a unique offering of research reports each month from Forrester Reports.
In keeping with the BCS’s commitment to developing electronic services, all BCS members are entitled to a free lifetime email address.
In 2007 BCS launched BCSrecruit.com, the official BCS jobsite specifically aimed at IT professionals. The advantage to IT recruiters is that they can specifically target IT professionals who are BCS members who have registered on the jobsite.
Software discounts are open to all members, with student members receiving even larger ones. These are available on Windows XP, Visio Project, AVG Anti Virus, Quark, TurboCad, Mindjet, Eurotalk, FileMaker and others.
With such a range of offerings, from the long-term career benefits and a lifetime email address, to the shorter-term financial and free software offers, BCS membership provides everything that an IT professional needs to maintain a long and productive career.
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