IT trade body Comptia is poised to launch of a new entry-level qualification for staff working on radio frequency identification (RFID) wireless tag systems, in anticipation of an imminent shortfall in IT professionals skilled in implementing and supporting RFID networks. Experts welcomed the news and predicted demand for RFID skills is set to soar as large retailers such as Tesco and Marks & Spencer undertake wider rollouts of the technology.

The RFID+ qualification, which was released as a beta late last year, will be officially launched in March and has already attracted enquiries from one of the top four UK supermarkets, which has expressed an interest in putting up to 800 of its staff through the exam.

Speaking exclusively to IT Week, Matthew Poyiadgi, regional director at Comptia in Europe, said the exam will cover RFID standards and regulations, network design, implementation and site analysis, testing and troubleshooting.

He added that it had been developed in collaboration with leading RFID technology suppliers and users, such as IBM, Intermec and DHL, and would be suited to IT professionals with networking or systems administration experience.

The qualification was welcomed by Geoff Barraclough of BT's RFID arm, BT Auto-ID Services, who said he would be interested in getting staff to sit the exam. He added that a formal qualification would increase the currently small number of engineers with a full understanding of RFID networks. "There is a shortage of good quality RFID engineers with skills that cover both radio and IT," he said "We're not seeing huge demand [for them] yet, but that could change rapidly when large retailers start deploying the technology right across supply chains."

Andy Lee, RFID marketing manager for Europe and emerging markets at networking giant Cisco, agreed the exam had come just in time to help head off a potential skills shortage. "As a supply chain technology it is in RFID's nature to proliferate and with so many firms moving from pilots to full-scale rollouts over the next two years this qualification has come at the right time," he said.

However, Nigel Montgomery of analyst AMR Research warned the qualification would not guarantee firms success with RFID deployments, because there would still be a shortage of staff with practical experience of the new technology. He added that while a technical qualification could help, firms also need to develop the business skills required to exploit information gained from RFID networks, to optimise supply chains.

Comptia's announcement came a week after supermarket giant Tesco revealed it was on target to meet its mid-2006 deadline to have RFID tags and readers in 1,400 stores and 30 distribution centres nationwide. Chemists Superdrug and car manufacturer Volvo have also recently confirmed plans to roll out the technology.

In a separate development, infrastructure giant Sybase beefed up its credentials in the RFID market, certifying its RFID Anywhere system with middleware from SAP. The company said the integration would allow firms to access and manage data gained from RFID tags through their enterprise applications.