Faculty Training Institute (FTI), the leading business analysis training company in South Africa, saw more than 350 students graduate from its highly regarded Diploma in Business Analysis in 2006.
"The business analyst (BA) is the fastest-growing role in IT," says FTI managing director Steve Erlank.
"A properly trained, professional BA, who is deployed as more than just a specification writer, is a very powerful force for change. Some of South Africa's more forward-thinking corporates are using professional BA skills to unlock value from their systems, processes, information, knowledge and operations."
Erlank says FTI, which recently became the first South African training provider to be endorsed by the International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA), trains 10 times as many BAs as any other company in South Africa.
"More than 1 000 BAs have graduated from our Diploma course over the past five years and over 100 companies regularly send employees on one of our diploma courses. About 10% of our delegates are people who attend and pay for the course themselves."
There is a massive demand for professional BAs, says Erlank, which is reflected in the salaries that the top professionals are now able to demand. "This demand is growing globally and top South African BAs are as good as any in the world," he says. Erlank recently returned from the World BA Congress in Orlando, where he was able to benchmark FTI's courses against those offered elsewhere in the world.
The IIBA is overseeing the rapid professionalisation of business analysis worldwide, says Erlank. "A Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) has been developed which sets out best practice and provides the basis for standardised professional training," he says. "It is now in its final draft stages and will become the basis for a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) qualification. Our six-month diplomas already fit closely with the BABOK and are increasingly been seen as de facto professional qualifications."
Erlank says FTI's business analysis diplomas starting in January and February 2007 are fully booked, but the company is already taking bookings for courses starting in April.
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Faculty Training Institute (FTI) is a private training company that specialises in offering world-class career-oriented training courses for professional knowledge workers, mainly in the corporate world. Focusing on mid-career rather than entry-level training, FTI specialises in project management, business analysis, systems analysis, software engineering, IT management and e-business training. It offers a variety of training options including public or in-house, part-time or full-time courses.
FTI was founded in 1989 by five experienced lecturers from the Department of Information Systems at the University of Cape Town, who perceived a gap between the technical or entry-level training offered by most private training companies, and the longer degree programmes offered by tertiary institutions. During the past 17 years FTI has expanded its successful product offerings from the initial two diploma courses into growing range of diplomas and short courses that serve the career needs of corporate South Africa.
In October 2006, FTI was awarded Charter Endorsed Education Provider status with the International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA). It is one of a handful of training organisations worldwide that have achieved this status.
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