The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) has joined forces with the British Computer Society (BCS) to offer a fast track route for its members to join the BCS as professional grade or chartered status members. The purpose of the joint initiative is to support the professional development of the organisations’ members within the IT sector; both PCG and BCS are dedicated to championing professionalism and provide a range of products and services aimed at supporting and enhancing their members’ careers.
Announcing the initiative, PCG chairman Simon Juden said, “The professional status of freelancers, consultants and contractors is becoming an important differentiator and we encourage all PCG members to invest in building their technical and business credentials. Demand from clients and employers for the new BCS grades of professional and chartered membership as proof of professionalism in IT is clearly increasing; we believe that these grades complement the new ISO9001 certification scheme recently launched by PCG.”
The BCS restructured its membership offering in 2004 to widen its appeal to all sections of the professional IT community, simplifying professional membership requirements. It also introduced a new gold standard membership category of Chartered IT Professional (CITP), in line with its vision of seeing the IT profession recognised as a profession of the highest integrity and competence.
The new scheme is targeting PCG members wishing to join BCS at the professional level. It is also open to PCG members who currently have BCS standard or professional membership and who wish to upgrade to the next level. The scheme will offer a fast track route into BCS membership, with a specially trained assessment panel committed to processing Chartered applications from PCG members within four weeks.
BCS chief executive David Clarke said, “We are delighted to be working with PCG to continue to develop professionalism in the IT industry, and making BCS membership more accessible to PCG’s IT members enabling them to gain industry-recognised endorsement of their credentials. BCS membership supports your career development at every stage, offers a wealth of IT industry information, and access to an unrivalled network of IT professionals to help you get your next job or contract.”
PCG’s latest annual survey showed that around 25 per cent of respondents were also members of BCS; this was more than for any other complementary organisation. PCG members may apply for BCS membership via a dedicated area of the website at www.bcs.org.