Had a call this morning from Brenda at the British Computer Society (BCS) that I have been accepted as a Fellow of the BCS.
Immensely proud moment for me as I'm a big supporter of the BCS - especially as it represents my profession into the UK Government. I'm also very vocal about the BCS's 'Professionalism in IT Agenda' - initially put forward by ex-President Charles Hughes.
It also makes me one of the youngest Fellows of the BCS at 36 (I'm trying to get confirmation that I'm the second youngest ever).
I often get questions that go - 'OK but what does the BCS do for me' and frankly apart from representing the industry, and workers in that industry, it provides the SFIA Plus skills framework - ratified by the UK e-Skills council (and the UK Government) as the basis for how technology skills are interpreted in the UK. They also hold regular 'chapter' meetings in most of the large cities in the UK (such as the Birmingham meetings I try and get to), regular specialist forums (such as the Data Centre Speciality group, which I'm a member of). Add a myriad of events focused at bringing people from the whole spectrum of job's in IT together and it's actually quite a lot. But to those who do have to ask - it's a two way street, i.e. what are you doing to promote and strengthen your industry - and your standing in that industry - well, for me, that's the answer. Get out there and get contributing - get busy making the UK technology industry one which is not just worth working in, but which is exciting and compelling to work in too.
As an IT / IS worker you should find that most technology companies allow one Professional Membership fee per annum, claimed back against tax. After a survey I ran in Sun in the UK we found that this was the BCS, with three times as many members as the other professional membership organisations chosen by staff (which we found was the IET, the PMI, and the APM - in approximately equal measure).
So I say - get out there and get involved, get a bigger view of what's going on in ICT in the UK - and participate!
Posted by Wayne Horkan's weblog: eclectic on February 21, 2008 at 12:24 AM GMT #