An IT education programme run by supplier organisation CompTIA is targeting CFOs and other senior business executives to teach them about the business benefits of IT.
Trade organisation CompTIA is creating what it calls a "boot camp" to teach senior non-IT executives the business benefits of technology. This will include senior management in HR, finance and marketing.
Traditionally, IT is seen as a cost rather than for its business advantage. Consequently, executives in control of budgets tend to cut spending on IT when times are tough.
CompTIA is an organisation made up of about 2,500 members from IT suppliers and their channel partners. The rationale is that, if business executives understand the value of IT, it will be easier for CompTIA members to sell it to them.
The organisers say the education programme could be good for CIOs if it makes it easier for them to recommend IT improvements to the business and help them secure bigger budgets.
Todd Thibodeaux, CEO at CompTIA, said there is a disconnect between IT and the business, which the programme hopes to address.
New technologies such as cloud computing and smartphone technology are being harnessed in business, but non-IT executives struggle to see the value of technology without relating it to the organisation.
"All this new technology is coming into the business and many workers don't know how to use it," said Thibodeaux.
"This includes things as simple as how to get files off a tablet."
The programme, planned to launch next year, will initially run in the US and UK.
It will have an advisory board made up of IT and non-IT experts. It will design a programme and curriculum and hopes to be able to hold a few courses a year.
Thibodeaux said training users in business to better understand technology and how it is used is even more challenging than teaching it in schools.
