Many CIOs and IT managers face a similar challenge:
“I have talented and motivated people on my team who deserve opportunities to grow and who could eventually take over leadership of the team—or even the entire IT organization. What development and learning plan should I prepare for them?”
In most organizations, the solution is to give employees the freedom to direct their own professional development. They choose the courses and learning paths they consider most valuable from their own actual perspective.
This typically results in a strong preference for technology-focused training that deepens expertise in the technologies they already use every day.
For an aspiring team leader, however, deep technical knowledge will not become the primary focus of their future role, nor will it be the highest priority in their job responsibilities.
So which areas of knowledge should receive greater attention instead?
The IT Leadership Certification program, followed by the Strategic CIO Certification, was designed specifically to provide two structured development pathways that equip current and future IT leaders with the knowledge required for modern IT governance.
The IT Leadership Certification consists of five courses delivered over six training days:
- IT Quality Foundation – 1 day
- Managing Knowledge Worker Quality – 2 days
- IT Performance Reporting – 1 day
- Digital Capabilities Management Model Masterclass – 1 day
- Innovation Management in IT – 1 day
Participants can then continue with the optional Strategic CIO Certification, which adds four additional courses over six more training days—for a total of nine courses delivered across twelve training days.
Additional courses include:
- Managing Supplier Quality – 2 days
- Digital Capabilities Management Model Manager – 2 days
- Digital IT Strategy – 1 day
- Information Theory for IT Practitioners – 1 day
For CIOs looking to create a development plan that typically spans two years, planning becomes significantly easier. Simply select one of these certification pathways and schedule the individual courses over time.
These certification programs provide an effective solution to one of the most common challenges CIOs face – structured talent development. Learning and Development planning becomes straightforward, eliminating the need to identify course dependencies or worry about gaps in managerial competencies.
Incidentally, the existence of structured skills development plans is also assessed as Quality Dimension H3 within the IT Quality Index methodology. Likewise, ISO/IEC 20000, clause 7.2, requires organizations to establish a structured approach to competency development.
Upon completing either the IT Leadership Certification or the Strategic CIO Certification, graduates gain not only up-to-date knowledge of modern IT governance but also practical templates, frameworks, and management practices that they can immediately apply in their leadership roles.
Each certification pathway concludes with the award of a professional certificate demonstrating that the participant has acquired the knowledge expected of an IT management professional.
