Skills Framework for the Information Age
Access the global standard for digital and ICT skills for free within Australia through our multi-year whole of country licence. Learn more about eligibility, training, usage, licence limitations and how to get started.
The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) is a global standard that defines digital and other ICT related skills.
SFIA is used by government agencies, private enterprises and individuals for workforce planning, recruitment and deployment of staff, career path frameworks, skills assessment and more.
The APS Digital Profession works very closely with SFIA.
- We manage the Australian country-wide SFIA license (SFIA-AU) on behalf of the Australian Government.
- We use it as our core capability framework.
SFIA is free to use in Australia
Australian individuals, public sector and private sector organisations can use SFIA for free through the Australian Government’s whole of country licence.
This includes commercial use and incorporation of SFIA into your own products within Australia, as long as you properly acknowledge SFIA. Additional fees may also be due in some circumstances.
Non-Australian entities are not covered by the whole of country licence. If Australia is not your main place of business, you may need your own licence to use SFIA within Australia. For details, visit SFIA whole of country licence.
How to access SFIA
You can access all SFIA resources, including full copies of the framework and guidance material on the SFIA Foundation website.
You don’t need to use a special login, and you can register for free:
- select Australia as the country
- accept the terms of use
- choose ‘free licence’ - personal or corporate, as appropriate.
Acknowledging use of SFIA
If you are using SFIA within your organisation, there are no acknowledgement requirements.
If you want to incorporate SFIA into products and services you provide to others, you must acknowledge SFIA. This applies whether your products and services are for profit or not-for-profit.
The minimum acknowledgement you can use is the following, linked as shown:
- Hyperlinked text only: Powered by SFIA-AU
- Hyperlinked image:
Download the SFIA logos
Black on white background
White on black background
Black on transparent background
White on transparent background
Correctly acknowledging SFIA is part of the terms and conditions for the whole of country licence.
Some uses are not covered by the whole of country licence.
To use SFIA in any of the following ways, you need to have a discussion with the SFIA Foundation and pay the applicable fees:
- selling services or products containing SFIA for profit outside Australia
- selling tools that contain SFIA (royalties may apply)
- providing SFIA based training for profit
- seeking or maintaining SFIA accreditation for individuals
- issuing SFIA credentials as part of an accreditation scheme.
For further information, download the whole of country SFIA licence (PDF, 243 KB) and general terms and conditions (PDF, 547 KB).
Contacts
General help and SFIA advice
For help using SFIA, including training and accreditation, visit the SFIA help pages.
SFIA Australian licence questions
For matters related to the whole of country licence and how it applies to you, email sfia@dta.gov.au.
Propose change requests to SFIA
Visit the SFIA Foundation website and register as an individual to propose or review change requests.
Join the SFIA practitioners community
Public sector SFIA users can share their implementation experience and learn from the experiences of others by joining the SFIA Practitioners community in the Digital Profession Members' Community Platform.