Future of ICT Qualifications

There has been recent comment on the HMC ICT discussion group about the future of discrete ICT lessons. The conclusion to which is that Heads of ICT are of the opinion that ICT cannot be left to be taught successfully as an adjunct to other subjects and does require contact time with ICT specialists.
However, I’ve been following this thread with interest because I am beginning to doubt the necessity of an ICT skills qualification, which when offered in early Year 8 actually has very little relevancy in the work place 10 years later at the age of 22 when looking for employment. The reality is that employers will sit you in front of a computer with an ICT assessment tool on it and ask you to do a test there and then. If we just think back 10 years would the office skills taught then be valid now. It may be different for us as we use these skills all the time but can a qualification gained in spreadsheets, then not used for 10 years be of any value to an employer?
Surely the ICT we teach has got to be ICT that is relevant to what pupils need to do now: how to conduct effective web research, how to present an essay, how to prepare a science report, how to graph field results, how to stay safe on the internet, how to best use social networking sites, how to program simple games, create flash animation, image manipulation. Supporting learning rather than preparing for employment. I’m sure we can all think of things that pupils should be learning in ICT that don’t require adherence to a syllabus which includes running queries in Access.
The AQA course we now offer in the Sixth Form has dispensed with testing ICT skills and focuses on design and development issues, ICT in society and so forth. Is it time for a move in this direction with our lower years too?