SFIA for you: A walk-through on how to create your own SFIA profile

• Thanks to everyone who joined us for SFIA Week 2024!
• You can view a replay of the session video, download the slides, and review the session Q&A below.
• We encourage you to explore the SFIA NZ site in more detail as it contains a wealth of knowledge and resources on digital skill and capability that could be beneficial to your learning journey.
• If you’d like to talk to us to about the benefits of SFIA for your organisation, or would like more info on our SFIA training and recruitment support services, please email us at hello@digitalskillsagency.com.

Video - replay session

Download slides

You can download our slides from this session via the link here. 

The link is also at the bottom of the page.

Q&A

1. Question:
   • How long would a new entrant graduate participating in an intentionally designed pathway or apprenticeship comprising targeted training, work-integrated-learning and actual work take to reach a SFIA level 3 competency?
   • Answer:
     • It's difficult to quantify with certainty how much time is required.  The guidance would be that they can demonstrate they can perform the skill as described at level 3 with consistency and competency and without guidance or support. With dedication that could be weeks, but we would expect most people would take several months if they are already at level 2 and have a good knowledge base of the area.
2. Question:
   • When doing a self-assessment, are you meant to assess against all the skills in the framework or only targeting the ones relevant to your role?
   • Answer:
     • With 147 skills in SFIA 9 (plus 16 attributes) we would strongly recommend filtering this down.
     • You could do a role-specific assessment. 
     • Or you could go specific but slightly broader than the role - e.g. the skills in a general practice domain with the guidance to 'pick those you feel apply.'
     • People can always add additional skills to their profiles at a later date.
3. Question: 
   • If I am implementing SFIA in my organisation, and the idea of the assessment is around demonstrated competency, is it better for the leaders to assess their staff OR the staff to do self-assessment? My train of thought is the leaders would know what their staff can or cannot do.
   • Answer:
     • Consider both. The self-assessment can be really useful to help staff explore, and then you can follow up for a more structure conversation.
     • Note that self-assessments are hugely variable in quality though, so we wouldn't recommend criticising anyone for getting skills/levels wrong on the first pass.
4. Question:
   • Are there any 'cheat sheets' for these meanings in simplistic language?
   • Answer:
     • The framework gives a short (typically 1 sentence) explanation for each skill and attribute. Also, each skill has guidance notes. 
     • See more on this from the SFIA Foundation at the link here.
5. Question:
   • Using an example of a Software Engineer or Cloud Engineer, how would you typically map Junior Engineer, Intermediate Engineer, Senior Engineer etc to the SFIA levels - and how long typically spent in each level?
     • Answer:
       • A 'very' rough guide as the terms junior/intermediate/senior can mean different things:
       • Typically in the core skills for the role you might consider:
         • Level 2 (junior) / 3 (intermediate) / 4 (senior)
           • This is if the junior doesn't work independently, or come with experience.
           • You might have a 'Principal' at level 5 in this version of levelling.
         • We also see levels 3/4/5 for junior/intermediate/senior. It depends on how the organisation builds its jobs and what level of skill is considered junior/senior etc.
         • Not all skills will jump up 1 level between the roles though. And the senior might have extra responsibilities (extra skills) - a principal almost certainly would have extra skills.
6. Question:
   
   • What level would a school leaver typically start at (level 1?) vs the level an IT graduate might start at? Assuming graduates of a 2 or 3 year diploma/degree, how long would a new entrant practitioner spend at each level before progressing to the next?
   • Answer:
     • Level 1 for a school leaver would be a good place to start. They may be level 2 in areas they are more familiar with if they have some outside professional experience.
     • Graduates typically have knowledge at level 3, but lack real-world professional experience so often start work at level 2. With their knowledge they might progress quickly to demonstrate level 3.
7. Question:
   
   • A common question I get asked is about these levels of responsibility. Is it expected to be the same across all generic attributes? E.g. a Senior Consultant expected to be level 3 on  Autonomy, Influence, Complexity, Knowledge and now the behavioural factors. Or more practically, could you be different levels per attribute?
   • Answer:
     • There is no requirement for the attributes or behavioural factors to be at the same level, in fact we frequently see people with a mix of levels in these areas.
     • However it would be unusual for them to be more than 1 level different in most cases. E.g. an individual with a mix of 3 and 4, or a mix of 5 and 6, in their attributes is quite normal. But a mix of 2,3,4 in attributes would be unusual.
     • However this is not the case with skills, which commonly appear with multiple levels of difference in one individual. E.g. you might have skills at levels 2, 3, 4 and 5 in your SFIA profile.