Announcement from the ITIL Qualifications Board

At the ITIL Qualifications Board meeting on Monday 8th October 2007 the Board considered a report from the Chief Examiner regarding the first two papers to be used by Accredited Training Organisations (ATOs) for their trainers to take.

The papers had been piloted by two members of the Examination Panel and they believe that the papers were not balanced across the whole syllabus. Consequently the Board took the decision to delay the issue of these papers.

The Managers' Bridge Examination papers are being reworked and will be available for ATOs to use on their internal course to bring trainers up to speed from 1st November 2007.

This will also delay the availability of papers to the wider community as it is important that ATOs have the opportunity to review material and ensure that trainers delivering the Managers' Bridge course are fully conversant with the syllabus and have taken and passed the exam. Bearing in mind the proximity of Christmas, the Board consider it will be prudent to delay the date when the Managers' Bridge is available to the wider community until January 2008.

The Board regret the delay but feel it is the right decision as it will provide time for both the Training Companies to fine tune their material and fully prepare their trainers and the Examination Panel to receive feedback from ATOs on the exam and if necessary make revisions prior to the wider launch.

ITIL v3 Foundation Syllabus

At the Qualification Board meeting on 8th October 2007 the Board considered a concern raised by several Accredited Training Organisations (ATOs) that, in their opinion, there is too much emphasis on Service Strategy and Continual Service Improvement (CSI) in the Foundation Syllabus.

A full review of the Foundation Syllabus is scheduled for the first quarter of 2008. However in light of the issues that have been raised the Chief Examiner has been asked to review these two areas of the syllabus and provide more detailed advice on specific topics that should be covered in Service Strategy and CSI at Foundation level. This advice is intended to enable ATOs to reduce the amount of coverage and time they spend dealing with these issues on the course and, clearly, examination papers will be adjusted accordingly.

This work is being given priority, but due to other commitments it is unlikely to be completed within the next two weeks. As soon as advice is available, ATOs will be notified together with a date from when the Foundation Exams will reflect the proposed change.