The global skills and competency framework for the digital world

Whole-of-Country Licence

The Whole-of-Country SFIA licence is for countries that want to drive a national digital skills and competency programme. This is particularly useful where the country wants to quickly generate momentum in addressing skills throughout the country internationally recognised, available at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time necessary to build and establish their own.

Introduction

A Whole-of-Country SFIA licence creates momentum for national skills initiatives by providing SFIA licensing to individuals and organisations throughout the country. The SFIA Framework will underpin many national skills initiatives not just ensuring national alignment but also international alignment and recognition.

The Whole-of-Country SFIA Licence removes the need for individual organisations to pay separately for SFIA licence fees. While there are some additional costs for commercial exploitation  or international use these too are under very preferential conditions.

It allows for national organisations to benefit from sharing within the international skills and competency community.

Details of the SFIA Whole-of-Country Licence can be found below.

Licensed countries

The following countries have Whole-of-Country SFIA Licences:

Any country wishing to discuss a Whole-of-Country SFIA Licence should contact the SFIA Foundation. As The SFIA Foundation is a not-for-profit, only requiring subsistence funding, fees are very modest and affordable, tiered according to GDP.

Benefits of a Whole-of-Country SFIA Licence

Some counties may wish to build their own framework but there are some compelling reasons to adopt the SFIA Framework.

  • Immediate availability
  • No initial development costs
  • Immediate global credibility
  • No update costs
  • Established global ecosystem
  • Update costs shared by all
  • Established user support 
  • Ability to influence the global framework
  • Proven sustainability
  • Adoption and usage guidance
  • Engaged user community
  • Multiple languages available
  • Regular and reliable updates
  • Established 3 year update cycle

Licence Details

Scope

The scope of the licence is:

  • All SFIA use by individuals within the country for their own skills and competency development
  • All SFIA use by public sector entities within the country
  • All SFIA use by private sector entities wholly-owned within the country and whose principal place of business is within the country

Individuals and organisations operating under a Whole-of-Country SFIA licence must separately register on the SFIA Website.

Private sector entities NOT wholly-owned within the country or whose principal place of business is NOT within the country are not covered by this licence and must be licensed separately. Organisations from outside of the country must not piggy-back on a Whole-of-Country Licence through a local organisation.

This licence covers:

  • Individuals developing their own skills and competencies
  • Organisations (public and private) developing the skills and competencies of their staff
  • In-house management of staff
  • Distribution of SFIA within other companies which are part of a country entity
  • Use of SFIA in a rate card for the provision of human resources for hire or contract
  • Any commercial exploitation of SFIA by country entities within the country
  • Use of a defined SFIA logo, provided by the SFIA Foundation

This licence does not permit:

  • Commercial exploitation by country entities outside of the country
    (A separate uplift fee from the entity may be required)
  • Commercial exploitation by entities outside of the country operating within the country
    (Separate licensing applies)

Duration and Fees

  • The cost of a Whole-of-Country Licence is tiered on the basis of the country's GDP
  • The licence is taken out for a minimum period of 3 years

While the Whole-of-Country Licence removes SFIA licence fees for country entities there are a number of other fees that may be applicable:

  • Individual assessment and accreditation fees where required
  • Individual digital credential fees where required
  • Operation by a country entity outside of the country - an uplift is required
  • Sales of tools containing SFIA by country entities incur royalty payments of 2.5%
    (Sales by non country entities royalty payments are 5%)

Terms

  • An individual licence is prepared for each country
  • The SFIA general terms and conditions still apply (modified by the individual licence)

Get this licence

To get the Whole-of-Country SFIA licence to create momentum for national skills and competency initiatives, please contact our Business Administrator.

You may still wish to build your own skills framework

Some may choose to build their own framework, if so, then the SFIA Foundation is willing to help. This is particularly important if you wish to have interoperability with the SFIA Framework and it is much easier to address this at the build stage rather then to try and make a framework, once built, work alongside SFIA.

The SFIA Foundation has huge experience of developing, updating and supporting the global digital skills framework for over 25 years and translating it into 12 languages to support a global user community and is happy to help.

The SFIA Foundation is happy to share its experience of:

  • How to develop a skills framework
  • The on-going maintenance and update activities
  • The costs involved in building the framework
  • The subsequent regular update maintenance costs
  • The timescales to publish and for updates
  • The timescales to get any significant use
  • Gaining international credibility for individual frameworks
  • The all important interoperability between frameworks internationally

For further discussion on this topic contact the SFIA Foundation.