A new certification scheme could help firms needing expertise to develop RFID systems

IT trade body CompTIA today officially launched its new qualification for IT professionals working with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and networks.

The move comes as a new survey from the organisation suggests that a shortage of staff with the necessary mix of wireless, IT and business-process skills is hampering adoption of RFID technology.

A survey of 500 US and UK companies found that over half had either already implemented RFID technology or planned to do so in the next year, but three quarters of technology firms surveyed claimed there were not enough skilled staff to support industry-wide deployments.

The new CompTIA RFID+ qualification will help tackle this problem, according to Matthew Poyiadgi regional director for CompTIA in Europe. He said the certificate had been developed in conjunction with 20 leading companies in the RFID sector and covered topics such as installation, configuration, and maintenance of the technology, as well as how to perform site surveys and select the best tags.

UCE Birmingham has signed up as one of the first universities to offer the qualification to companies and students.