Elevate your career with ITIL 4

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is transforming our lives, from the way we work to the way we shop and socialize. Technology is evolving at an exponential rate; providing us with new and different ways to interact and engage with each other, fuelling new behaviours and experiences, and enabling us to work remotely or in more automated ways. We now expect more from digital products and services, as both consumers and users.

But as customer demands evolve and increase, so does the pressure on IT and digital professionals to remain ahead of the curve. They need to gain the knowledge and skills required to utilize innovative technologies, such as Cloud, Automation and AI; and new ways of working, including DevOps, Lean and Agile, in order to continually improve their outcomes and remain employable, for both their existing employers and potential new ones.

With this increasing disruption, it is no surprise that Executives are now making ‘retraining and upskilling existing workers an urgent business priority’, as identified in the ‘Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation’ report published by McKinsey earlier this year.

The report highlights that the world of work is experiencing a change that is ‘akin to coping with the large-scale shift from agricultural work to manufacturing that occurred in the early 20th century in North America and Europe, and more recently in China’. However, workforce transition today is so much faster than it was in the 1900s and professionals need to adapt quickly.

The McKinsey report also highlighted that ‘sixty-two percent of executives believe they will need to retrain or replace more than a quarter of their workforce between now and 2023 due to advancing automation and digitization', raising concerns for job security which is especially pertinent now.

So, how can IT and digital professionals boost their careers and ensure they have the right skills and knowledge to meet the needs of the changing world of work?

Start your ITIL 4 journey today

Professionals and organizations alike are facing challenging and disruptive times ahead. However, this is also a time of opportunity for growth and transformation through learning and enhancing knowledge and skills.

ITIL 4 is the evolution of ITIL, the most widely recognized framework and certification for IT and digitally-enabled services in the world. The ITIL framework has been providing millions of professionals with comprehensive, practical and proven guidance for the design, management and delivery of IT and digital products and services for over 30 years.

The ITIL 4 scheme consists of six modules and enables professionals to look at IT service management through an end-to-end IT and digital operating model that covers the full delivery and sustainability of tech-enabled products and services.

ITIL 4 Foundation

ITIL 4 Foundation serves as the building blocks of ITIL 4 and step one of the journey. It was the first module to launch in the scheme and introduces professionals to the architecture of ITIL 4 and its concepts:

• Service value system (SVS): will help professionals and organizations to facilitate value co-creation and provide end-to-end value for your service relationships
• Service value chain (SVC): is a set of interconnected activities that provide an operating model for the creation, delivery, and continual improvement of services
• Guiding principles: are at the core of ITIL 4 and help professionals to adopt and adapt the framework to their own specific needs and circumstances
• ITIL practices: are a fundamental part of the ITIL 4 framework and provide a holistic vision for ways of working
• Four dimensions: represent perspectives that are relevant to the whole SVS, and are critical to the effective and efficient facilitation of value for customers and other stakeholders.

Who is ITIL 4 Foundation for?

ITIL 4 Foundation is for professionals at the start of their journey or those already certified in ITIL  v3 looking to upgrade their existing knowledge. It will help professionals to:

• Discover how modern IT and digital service organizations work
• Understand how work contributes to organizational success
• Learn commonly used service management terms and concepts
• Understand how value streams increase speed and efficiency
• Learn how cultural or behavioural principles guide work that benefits the wider organization.

Introducing ITIL 4 Managing Professional and ITIL 4 Strategic Leader

However, professionals do not need to stop with Foundation. They can continue to learn, grow and develop their digital skills to become an ITIL 4 Managing Professional and/or an ITIL 4 Strategic Leader.

There are five other ITIL 4 modules which professionals can take once they are certified in ITIL 4 Foundation:

• ITIL 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver and Support. The ‘engine room’ of the digital and IT function. The next step for professionals who design and manage the delivery and support of IT-enabled digital products and services.
• ITIL 4 Specialist: Drive Stakeholder Value. Ensuring digital and IT services delight. For professionals who are responsible for designing or managing customer journeys and experiences, managing stakeholders and fostering valuable relationships.
• ITIL 4 Specialist: High-velocity IT. The future of digital and IT services. Professionals working within or towards the delivery of digital products and services and digital transformation projects.
• ITIL 4 Strategist: Direct, Plan and Improve. Bringing digital and IT strategies to life. The step to take for IT and digital managers responsible for aligning work to an organization’s strategy or developing a continually improving team or service.
• ITIL 4 Leader: Digital and IT Strategy. Enabling business success through the creation of digital and IT strategies. Senior IT and business leaders, heads of department and aspiring C-Suite professionals across the organization who define and implement digital strategies would benefit from taking this module.

Start your ITIL 4 journey today with ITIL 4 Foundation.  

Careers are built on ITIL 4