1. Framework for ICT Technical Support (FITS) Trevor Greenfield Technical Director - The FITS Foundation FITS
2. Our objective here is To provide some information about FITS, how it can help achieve good technical support and maximise return on investment for users To outline who ‘The FITS Foundation’ is and how it relates to Becta To update you on FITS 2.0 To describe the new FITS Accreditations Provide contact details for The FITS Foundation
3. What is FITS? FITS is the “ F ramework for I CT T echnical S upport” FITS was developed from best practice processes and designed specifically for educational establishments FITS provides the processes required for efficient and effective management and delivery of technical support
4. Introduction to FITS Service Level and Financial Management Incident Management Service Desk Problem Management Security Management Operations Management ICT Strategy Workforce Management Change Management Configuration Management
6. The FITS Goal Our goal is to support better teaching & learning outcomes by: - Providing more reliable ICT - Better value for money from ICT Investment - Delivery of ICT Support as a service
7. The FITS Goal Our goal is to support technicians by: - Providing a standard set of processes to support ICT - Internationally recognised qualifications - Raise the profile of technicians in schools - Help towards career progression
8. The FITS Foundation - Background Strengths Developed within Becta Benefited from Becta Strategic Technologies team Excellent Pedigree
9. The FITS Foundation - Background Weaknesses Reliant on UK Government funding On-going requirement for delivery Continuity cannot be guaranteed Strengths Developed within Becta Benefited from Becta Strategic Technologies team Excellent Pedigree
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11. The FITS Foundation - Structure Formed September 2009 Not-for Profit Foundation Governing Body Training Partners Working closely with Becta
12. The Accreditations Two levels Level 4 ICT Support in Education - Practitioner Level 5 ICT Support in Education – Manager (Advanced) More courses and Accreditations planned Internationally Recognised
13. The Accreditations Level 4 ICT Support in Education – Practitioner (Provides 2 credits towards a HN qualification) Run over 2 days 1 1/2 Days classroom work Online examination
14. The Accreditations Level 4 ICT Support in Education – Practitioner Classroom work Teaching from the front Case study exercises Group activity
15. The Accreditations Level 4 ICT Support in Education – Practitioner Examination Online through the SQA Solar system 90 minutes to complete 40 randomly generated questions (Multiple choice) 60% pass mark
16. The Accreditations Level 4 ICT Support in Education – Practitioner Covers: Service Desk | Incident Management | Problem Management Change, Release and Patch Management | Configuration Management | Security Management Total cost £510 Includes; Reference manual, Courseware, exam fee
17. The Accreditations Level 5 ICT Support in Education – Manager (Advanced) (Provides 2 credits towards a HN qualification) Run over 3 days 2 1/2 Days classroom work Online examination
18. The Accreditations Level 5 ICT Support in Education – Manager (Advanced) Classroom work Teaching from the front Case study exercises Group activity
19. The Accreditations Level 5 ICT Support in Education – Manager (Advanced) Examination Online through the SQA Solar system 90 minutes to complete 40 randomly generated questions 60% pass mark
20. The Accreditations Level 5 ICT Support in Education – Manager (Advanced) Covers: Directory services administration | Print and output management Storage management | Service level and service continuity management Performance monitoring | preventative maintenance | Energy conservation | Availability and capacity management | ICT financial management Total cost £710 Includes; Reference manual, Courseware, exam fee
21. In the pipeline Lower Level Accreditation for Primary Technicians and TAs - FITS Introductory Covering: Service Desk | Incident management | Problem management Security management Will also be an accredited course
22. In the pipeline Courses for Senior Leaders and Managers ICT Strategy Management for Senior Leaders Service Level Management for schools with a managed service
23. In the pipeline The FITS “ Realise your Vision” for Teaching and Learning Roadmap Comprehensive whole school hands-on consultancy Identifies; Where you are now Where you want to get to How to get there – with our help
24. Summary Our goal is - FITS to become the ‘Industry Standard’ for all educational establishments & service providers. - provide International recognition via FITS accreditation for Schools and Technicians - provide timely and accurate advice and guidance - build upon the services we provide through our policy of continuous improvement - have a positive impact on teaching and learning experiences Internationally
25. More Details Website www.thefitsfoundation.org Support [email_address] Office: The FITS Foundation Pure Offices Plato Close Leamington Spa Warwickshire CV34 6WE Tel: 01926 800121 [email_address]
Editor's Notes
Title slide of presentation.
Our objective with this presentation is; to provide some information about FITS and how it can impact ICT support and return on ICT investment To outline who The FITS Foundation is and how it relates to Becta To update you on FITS 2.0 To describe the new FITS accreditations And finally provide contact information
..So what is FITS FITS is a framework. It makes support work in school. Think of a traffic island or queuing system. They bring order to what otherwise would be chaos.
FITS comprises 4 main groups and within these there are several processes. Technical support management is cyclic as depicted in the diagram. We start with taking care of the reactive processes, Service Desk and Incident Management. Service Desk is all about creating a single point where ALL requests for ICT support are recorded. This is a key process because it provides the essential data on which all future decisions are based. These processes are fix after failure. We next look at the Proactive processes – these are prevent future failures by acting proactively now. Change Processes provide the structure for managing the instances of change caused by the other processes Strategic Processes are about managing the ICT function effectively
Why does all this matter? I don’t have to tell this audience that technical support costs money and that cost is constantly being challenged. The question is often asked ‘Why do we need to spend this money on technical support’ This chart from a recent Becta survey shows that each printer, whiteboard and PC fails every two months. Also the Internet and College network fails every 3 months. Some of these faults just effect a single user, but this could be the teacher! Others impact an entire class or the school such as a network failure. Depending on the reliance on IT for that particular lesson, that could be very disruptive. Anything that helps to reduce this failure rate or shorten its impact has a positive impact on the learner experience. The FITS processes are designed to help reduce these occurrences
The overall goal of FITS is to have a positive impact on teaching and learning. Unless the work we do is helping the school produce better outcomes for the students, we have to question why we are doing it. FITS aims to achieve this by providing more reliable ICT, better value for money from your ICT and visible return on your ICT investment. FITS also encourages your ICT technical support staff to consider your staff and pupils as customers and to deliver ICT to them as a service. FITS provides a range of tools to help your ICT support staff provide a quality service. Included among them are support processes and templates, education specific guidance and service management and delivery procedures. We aim to provide accredited technicians with a private members website where they will have access to a knowledge base, online tutorials, members forum and lots more resources.
We also have a goal technicians FITS provides a range of tools to help you provide a quality service. Included among them are support processes and templates, education specific guidance and service management/service delivery procedures. We aim to provide accredited technicians with a private members website where they will have access to a knowledge base, online tutorials, members forum and lots more resources.
Let’s look at the background to the FITS Foundation by starting with the background to FITS Many strengths; Developed within Becta Benefited from Becta Strategic Technologies Team Both Becta and FITS have an enviable reputation worldwide But there were some concerns
Becta relies on funding from UK Government of the day for funding Becta existed to support and deliver one-off initiatives, and when they are delivered move on to the next Continuity for a project that is on-going cannot be guaranteed FITS requires continual support to keep technicians abreast of the latest technologies being introduced into schools
At the same time the world in which we work is changing; Technology usage in schools has grown organically over the years but in many instances the skill levels of those early technicians has not been upgraded to address the new demands made upon them. Today's technicians need to be far more technical than used to be the case. Management and communication skills in particular are fundamental to the new environment. The more sophisticated users in schools now are forcing a move to a service culture where we think in terms of customers and service level agreements. There is currently no professional body dedicated to school ICT technicians specifically. Also while there is a union for local government there isn't one specifically for technicians. School technicians had no professional qualification that they could obtain that would provide them with much needed recognition and generally no clearly defined career development path. FITS now changes all of that.
This gave us an opportunity to address these issues by making FITS self-funding and provide the much requested accreditations Formed Sept 2009 Not-for-profit Funded from course & Accreditation fees Overseen by a governing body Training and Accreditation delivered through training partners and our own trainers Continued to work closely with Becta to ensure consistency
We currently have 2 accreditations with more planned in the future
Practitioner details
Practitioner details
Practitioner details
Practitioner details
Manager details
Manager details
Manager details
Manager details
Future plans include a lower level accreditation and training for Senior Leaders
Future plans include a lower level accreditation and training for Senior Leaders
Future plans include a whole school consultancy The FITS “Realise your Vision” for teaching and learning Roadmap.
Our goal is - to become the ‘Industry Standard’ for all educational establishments & service providers. - provide International recognition via FITS accreditation for Schools and Technicians - provide timely and accurate advice and guidance through continued support from Becta - build upon the services we provide through our policy of continuous improvement - have a positive impact on teaching and learning experiences Internationally
