VOL. 10, NO. 23, DECEMBER 2015 ISSN 1819-6608 ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences ©2006-2015 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved. www.arpnjournals.com 17588 A PROPOSED FRAMEWORK FOR STANDARDIZING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONAL SKILLS & EVALUATION SCHEMA FOR NEW IT EMPLOYEES Mohanad Adam 1 , Nor Zairah Ab Rahim 2 and Suraya Miskon 1 1 University Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia 2 University Teknologi Malaysia, KL, Malaysia E-Mail: m.adam.istc@gamil.com ABSTRACT Educational and training institutions must restructure themselves to better prepare the arriving new workforce. Nowadays, hiring the right IT candidate and assign them to the proper position is becoming more of a challenge to companies & business owners. One effective tool for restructuring the hiring process is standardizing IT skills set. This paper will shed some lights on some of the IT skills evaluation elements. Therefore, related cases have been selected & studied to determine some the main elements affecting IT skills evaluation. Thus the proposed framework came to existence. The Impact of an IT skill standardized framework will create a common base framework for educators, industry, and other stakeholders to develop jointly the educational and training tools necessary to prepare students and current workers for today’s workplace challenges as well as those that lie ahead. Keywords: standardizing, business owners, educators, employees, certifications, soft & hard skills, evaluating, and assessment. INTRODUCTION Information technology skills has become a mandatory instrument in the modern workplace, as it will determine the level of IT skill for any effective participation in most careers [1]. This places pressure on both the industrial and educational sector to provide fresh graduates with an appropriate level of computer literacy. Today computer skills has moved beyond basic Microsoft Word processing and file management, to active directory administration for desktops, knowledge of spreadsheets, and profound Internet skills. Furthermore, the ability to master various IT skills packages is now an overflowing demand, to the point where basic computer literacy tends to mean absolutely nothing in the rapid and competitive market of this new era [2]. As most careers require some level of a combined hardware and software skills, perhaps we have reached the stage where IT skills takes on a more complex and significance form[3]. Therefore, skill standardization can provide a common language for education and business collaboration. By definition, skill standards are specifications of “the level of knowledge and competence required to successfully perform work-related functions within an occupational cluster” as defined by the National Skill Standards Act enacted in 1994 [4]. The issue here is that various industrial sectors can face harsh times during recruiting for new IT candidates where by evaluating their academic and professional certification isn’t quite enough to determine their position and skills required to fulfill their duties in the digital workplace [5]. Therefore, having a standard and comprehensive IT skill set framework will aid in defining the professional job related knowledge, skills, and abilities required to succeed in any organization. The principals and techniques of IT skill set evaluation are the fundamental and the core of basic IT employment hiring process as well as the most important and complex application that any hiring committee and employment expert needs to learn [6]. This paper is organized as follows. Section I discusses the research background. Section II presents the research methodology and the approach used to conduct the research. Section III will review related work cases and its main findings. Section IV explains the research analysis & derived elements based on the literature. Finally, the proposed framework derived by the elements extracted from related cases & conclusion in Section VI. RESEARCH BACKGROUND The current employment market, is looking for new ways to utilize technology to serve its economic growth. In response to such pressure some universities are changing the traditional way of learning, the question is whether these academic institutes are welling to integrate IT into their teaching to complement other teaching and learning experiences which will be reflected subsequently on the level of their graduates IT skills [7]. Modern studies indicate that most competitive industrial nations have evolved a well-established professional skill standards system [5]. So why do so? This is due to when applying a standard IT skills Framework it will aid the organizations in filtering and measuring employee’s true IT skill which in return will define and determine the ideal position fit for each relate IT vacancy [4]. Any failure in constructing a framework that can properly measures and authenticate the candidates skills credibility will introduce – at least in the long run - an unbalanced staffing structure of the organization if the un skilled person has been assigned to the most sensitive position and cause the company's performance level to