SFIA for employers
SFIA boosts the effectiveness and competitiveness of digital, IT and software engineering organisations by enabling: new operating models ■ organisation and job design ■ workforce planning ■ sourcing and recruitment ■ resource deployment ■ skills and performance assessment ■ skills gaps analysis ■ skills and capability development programmes ■ career paths ■ compensation and reward
About SFIA
SFIA describes the skills and competencies required by professionals in roles involved in information and communication technologies, digital transformation and software engineering. Learn more about what SFIA is, its design principles, who uses it and why they use it.
SFIA and skills management
SFIA provides a common language throughout the skills management cycle. This improves communication and understanding for all involved e.g. line management, HR and employees. By using SFIA, organisations can achieve a consistent and integrated skills and people management approach.
How SFIA works
At the core of SFIA is a comprehensive set of descriptions of professional skills and generic attributes. This section describes how it all fits together to form a simple, yet powerful, and proven approach.
The context for SFIA
SFIA is industry and business-led and at its core is the need for experience. SFIA's model for professional capability is holistic and includes experience, professional skills, knowledge, behaviours, qualifications and certifications. SFIA is used by the world's leading professional bodies to define their professional competencies, to support their accreditation schemes and their bodies of knowledge.
Browse the content of SFIA
SFIA is designed to be flexible and there are a number of different ways to browse the content of the framework.
Download the SFIA documentation
The documents you need to understand and adopt SFIA can be downloaded in PDF and Excel formats (requires free registration/login).
Using SFIA
SFIA is non-prescriptive in how you, as an employer, can use it. You can pick it up and flex and adapt it to suit your needs and desired outcomes. Many employers are interested in guidance from the SFIA Foundation to learn from others and to help drive good practice and consistency of outcome.
Getting help with SFIA
- There is an active global ecosystem of SFIA Partners, SFIA Consultants and Practitioners. They are available for advice on adopting SFIA.
- If you have any questions which are not answered on this website; please contact the SFIA General Manager
Licensing SFIA
To use SFIA, you need a licence. For in-house use by a single organisation (or use by an individual), the licence is free of charge, but you still need to register for the licence.
- The Corporate User Licence - is for the internal use of SFIA as a management resource by a single company or Government department to help manage the skills of its staff.
- The Extended Corporate User licence - is for the use of SFIA in an internal framework or scheme that you also distribute to other companies in your Corporation.
Training in the use of SFIA
- Accredited Training is the best way to gain a good understanding of the Framework and an insight into how it can be used effectively to deliver real benefits in enhancing the capability of an organisation through the management of the skills of its staff.
- Accredited training follows the standard SFIA Foundation training syllabus and expected learning outcomes.
- The SFIA Foundation authorises Training Providers to ensure that their accredited courses are only delivered by SFIA Accredited Consultants. That means that their trainers will have active experience in skills management, not just knowledge of the SFIA framework.
Recognition for your employees
There are 3 levels of recognition:
- SFIA Foundation level
- SFIA Accredited Practitioner
- SFIA Accredited Consultant