The QA Skills Scan

In November 2020, I completed a skills self-assessment using a tool produced by the QA (the  Skills Scan: Digital Technology Solutions Degree Apprenticeship Level 7). This provides a useful baseline. It also helps identify areas and priorities for personal development

The tool is aligned to a particular course (M.Sc. Digital Transformation Specialist) and its associated Apprenticeship standards. It uses a five point scale to record self-assessed knowledge, skills and behaviours for groups of dimensions

The assessment has two parts: a common core and a second section for the selected specialist pathway (for me, this is Data Analytics).

The five point scoring system is a defined as follows:

Rating scale for knowledge
1	I have no prior knowledge of this area
2	I know what this is but only at a basic level
3	I have some knowledge of this subject
4	I have a good understanding but have never been formally assessed or applied it in my workplace
5	I have comprehensive knowledge and understanding, plus a qualification to demonstrate this.

Rating scale for skills
1	I have no skills in this area or have never done this
2	I have basic understanding but no practical experience
3	I have some practical experience in this outside of the work environment
4	I have experience applying this skill in the workplace, but need to continue my training
5	I have performed this skill regularly and competently for more than a year, and have qualifications to support this

Although six of the core dimensions are behaviours,  no specific definitions are given for rating behaviour. 

The lowest point on the scale is 1 which is used for zero knowledge or skills i.e.  you score a point even if you know absolutely nothing and have no skills of experiences in any of the dimensions .

The highest point on the scale is 5 which is quite exacting as the criteria specify ’… plus a qualification to demonstrate this’ and  ‘…and have qualifications to support this’

A lot of the dimension descriptions have overtones  of 'management speak', including doubling up .They could be split, simplified and made more specific and measurable.

The  following are details of the scores I gave myself (November 2020)

Core knowledge	Self-Rating
The strategic importance of technology enabled business processes, and how they are designed and managed to determine a firm’s ability to compete effectively;	3
The principles of business transformation and how organisations integrate different management functions in the context of technological change;	2
The role of leadership in contemporary technology based organisations;	3
Own employer’s business objectives and strategy, its position in the market and how own employer adds value to its clients through the services and/or products they provide;	4
How to justify the value of technology investments and apply benefits management and realisation;	3
How to monitor technology related market trends and research and collect competitive intelligence;	3
The personal leadership qualities that are required to establish and maintain an organisations technical reputation.	3
The role of leaders as change agents and identify contributors to successful implementation;	3
Technology road-mapping concepts and methods and how to apply them;	2
The role of learning and talent management in successful business operations.	2
Inspire and motivate others to deliver excellent technical solutions and outcomes	4
Establish high levels of performance in digital and technology solutions activities	4
Be results and outcomes driven to achieve high key performance outcomes for digital and technology solutions objectives	3
Promote a high level of cooperation between own work group and other groups to establish a technology change led culture	3
Develop and support others in developing an appropriate balance of leadership and technical skills	3
Create strong positive relationships with team members to produce high performing technical teams	4

 

 

Core Skills	Self-Rating
Identify, document, review and design complex IT enabled business processes that define a set of activities that will accomplish specific organisational goals and provides a systematic approach to improving those processes;	3
Design and develop technology roadmaps, implementation strategies and transformation plans focused on digital technologies to achieve improved productivity, functionality and end user experience in an area of technology specialism;	3
Deliver workplace transformations through planning and implementing technology based business change programmes including setting objectives, priorities and responsibilities with others in an area of technology specialism;	3
Negotiate and agree digital and technology specialism delivery budgets with those with decision-making responsibility;	2
Develop and deliver management level presentations which resonate with senior stakeholders, both business and technical;	4
Professionally present digital and technology solution specialism plans and solutions in a well-structured business report;	3
Demonstrate self-direction and originality in solving problems, and act autonomously in planning and implementing digital and technology solutions specialist tasks at a professional level;	4
Be competent at negotiating and closing techniques in a range of interactions and engagements, both with senior internal and external stakeholders;	2
Evaluate the significance of human factors to leadership in the effective implementation and management of technology enabled business processes;	3
Develop own leadership style and professional values that contributes to building high performing teams;	4
Apply broader technical knowledge combined with an understanding of the business context, and how it is changing, to deliver to the company’s business strategy;	3
Demonstrate effective technology leadership and change management skills for managing technology driven change and continuous improvement;	3
Create and implement innovative technological strategies to support the development of new products, processes and services that align with the company’s business strategy, and develop and communicate compelling business proposals to support these.	3

 

Data Analytics Specialist Core Knowledge	Self- Rating
How key algorithms and models are applied in developing analytical solutions and how analytical solutions can deliver benefits to organisations;	2
The information governance requirements that exist in the UK, and the relevant organisational and legislative data protection and data security standards that exist. The legal, social and ethical concerns involved in data management and analysis;	4
The principles of data driven analysis and how to apply these. Including the approach, the selected data, the fitted models and evaluations used to solve data problems;	3
The properties of different data storage solutions, and the transmission, processing and analytics of data from an enterprise system perspective. Including the platform choices available for designing and implementing solutions for data storage, processing and analytics in different data scenarios;	2
How relevant data hierarchies or taxonomies are identified and properly documented;	3
The concepts, tools and techniques for data visualisation, including how this provides a qualitative understanding of the information on which decisions can be based.	4

 

Data Analytics Specialist Core Skills	Self- Rating
Identify and select the business data that needs to be collected and transitioned from a range of data systems; acquire, manage and process complex data sets, including large-scale and real-time data;	4
Undertake analytical investigations of data to understand the nature, utility and quality of data, and developing data quality rule sets and guidelines for database designers;	4
Formulate analysis questions and hypotheses which are answerable given the data available and come tostatistically sound conclusions;	3
Conduct high-quality complex investigations, employing a range of analytical software, statistical modelling & machine learning techniques to make data driven decisions solve live commercial problems;	2
Document and describe the data architecture and structures using appropriate data modelling tools, and select appropriate methods to present data and results that support human understanding of complex data sets;	3
Scope and deliver data analysis projects, in response to business priorities, create compelling business opportunities reports on outcomes suitable for a variety of stakeholders including senior clients and management.

Truncating the descriptions allows us to produce a more compact summary, trimming off the 1st point, as it is always awarded:

 

This  highlights the areas which, in November, I felt I most needed to improve. Clearly these self assessed scores can both rise and fall, the former as I learn more, the latter as I understand more.

I am hoping that the course will go some way towards providing a qualification pulling some of the dimensions up to 5.In some cases it is hard to see how there could ever be a relevant qualification at all. Moving all the dimensions scoring 2 up to 3 would be an reasonable and achievable priority.