The number of examinees for SHIFT's unique career improvement system “Top Gun Test” has exceeded 1,000 in a single month
Accelerate certification exams and aim to balance employee career advancement and corporate growth

SHIFT reports that the number of people taking the “Top Gun Test,” which is independently developed for group employees, exceeded 1,000 in a single month in 2024/6.

■Overview of the Top Gun Test
The Top Gun certification is a certification system incorporated into the employee development curriculum called the career improvement system “Top Gun,” which SHIFT has been developing since around 2020/1. The career advancement system “Top Gun” is an internal system for SHIFT Group employees who wish to improve their skills or advance their careers. Examinees for each certification exam acquire knowledge based on abundant teaching materials, and after steadily consolidating the knowledge acquired through work, they take the exam. If they pass the exam, they are certified as one of the indicators that prove the skills of employees set within the company, and salaries are also raised in conjunction with placement and linkage to higher-grade projects. Skill improvement, sales power, and evaluation systems are closely linked, and it is possible not only to improve salaries, but also to increase the market value of employees themselves. Furthermore, SHIFT is a win-win system that can continuously develop and secure high-value-added human resources with higher motivation.

At the beginning of the certification, it was developed with only one level, but now the scope has been expanded to include executive, manager, and member classes, so it is also possible to aim for a maximum unit price of 2.5 million yen through the Top Gun certification. We have created an environment where motivated employees can maximize their personal growth.

The number of test takers for the Top Gun certification has been rising steadily year by year, and when the number of annual test takers for FY2020, which is the starting year, was 315, the number of test takers per year for FY 2023 has increased by about 8.7 times to 2,745, but now, in 2024/6, the number of examinees in a single month has exceeded 1,000. Note, even in technical tests related to general software tests, the number of examinees per year is about 4,000, and the number of examinees exceeding 1,000 per month can be said to be proof that many employees feel attracted to the career improvement system “Top Gun” and are actively working to improve their skills.

■Future prospects
We aim to further promote the career advancement system “Top Gun” in order to further increase engineer unit prices and improve service value. Furthermore, we will accelerate the entrance exam for the Top Gun certification and continue to encourage employees to advance their careers and improve their skills, thereby creating an environment where diverse human resources can play an active role.

Furthermore, SHIFT is actively hiring non-IT human resources (FY2023 results: 1,309 people). Even non-IT human resources can play an active role in SHIFT as an excellent “IT human resource” by passing the CAT certification (*) of the recruitment certification test developed independently by SHIFT. Furthermore, these non-IT human resources will grow into even higher value-added human resources by going through Top Gun certification and improving their careers and skills. The creation of such a system is one of the sources of strength that allows SHIFT to continuously secure excellent human resources as the IT human resource recruitment environment intensifies, and at the same time, I believe it is also an initiative with social value to create IT human resources.

SHIFT aims to quickly achieve the medium-term growth strategy “SHIFT3000,” which aims for sales of 300 billion yen from FY2028 to FY2030, and will put even more effort into human resource development, leading to further corporate growth.

* The career improvement system “Top Gun” and the Top Gun certification are internal systems for SHIFT Group employees.
※ A certification test developed independently by SHIFT. Regardless of whether they have knowledge or experience in programming or the IT industry, it is a certification exam with a pass rate of 6% that selects human resources who have the qualifications truly necessary for software testing.

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