The Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) Tuesday launched a skills and career development initiative dubbed IT Pro to track and inform members of changing trends in terms of career development or hot IT skills.

Danika Bakalich, CompTIA ANZ regional director, said the initiative is like a navigation tool that identifies current skills required in the workplace.

"The skills framework in IT Pro [will focus on] skills required in the work force to ensure employers are offering training in the right areas. This is needed in the marketplace, Bakalich said, because of the difficulty or predicting what technologies are being considered for deployment at any time.

"The communities involved are open source committee groups, teachers, Web developers, Java and security specialists, as well as groups focused not only on high-end technology but for people new to the industry.

"Very often we get people calling us asking for jobs so we are looking at having an open chat line for communication."

In 1999, CompTIA produced a global skills framework linking industry vendors with job roles and found a plethora of industry qualifications (700 in fact). This research formed a database that is updated by vendors quarterly and is a key part of IT Pro.

IT Pro, which was launched in Sydney by IT Minister Senator Helen Coonan, was born out of a vendor steering committee -- made up of Cisco, Apple, Microsoft, HP, IBM, Symantec, Oracle and Sun -- established in 2003 to understand the impact vendor training and certification has on the IT industry, and how to improve skill sets.

All claim IT professionals lack the recognition they deserve, a view supported by CompTIA"s market.

Bakalich said IT Pro"s agenda for the next 12 months is to lift the profile of IT within key areas: linking training with performance, attracting new candidates to the industry, supporting teachers (who use and do not use IT in the classroom) and to create a new generation of IT employees. Information is available at www.itpro.comptia.com.au.