Andy Thomson

I am a SFIA Accredited Consultant and Chair of the SFIA Council.  You may know me from QA Learning where I led SFIA consultancy engagements for 12 years.  Now through my own company, Career-Steps Ltd, I’m able to work with you to identify future-facing skills needs and implement learning and development plans for your digital, IT and change teams.

Drawing on decades of professional experience in IT, software development, business change and L&D, I engage comfortably with technical and professional individuals, as well as with CIOs and Heads of Functions who need to drive forward their teams' capabilities.  Through a professional and personal style of engagement, on-site or on-screen, I offer a choice of approaches to planning skills development that cover technical, professional and personal skills.

• For individuals:
I offer a 1:1 service to review your current context, career opportunities and aspirations. We'll identify your priorities, look at what choices you can make and what learning you might take that will move you in the direction you want to go.  Aligning your own skills and experience to the industry-standard SFIA Framework will raise your professional profile with agencies and those responsible for hiring.

• For people-managers:
We'll work together to identify and benchmark the skills you need to drive forward your team's capability. We'll plan development for groups or individuals over time-bands from 3 to 24 months, to ensure that urgent needs are prioritised, while addressing longer-term transformation and growth. Alignment with the industry-standard SFIA Framework helps with promotion, transfer and recruitment through consistent terminology and clearly-defined levels of responsibility.