In today's workplace, a wide range of employees – from secretaries to middle managers to chief executives – need up-to-date computer skills to be effective and efficient in their jobs. When they lack the basics, it can inhibit them professionally. And ultimately, it has an impact on the worker's employer and a business' bottom line.
ICDL, a step-by-step program of fundamental computer skills, can bring workers at all levels up to cyberspeed in today's wired world.
Project TIME
In Philadelphia and Centre, Clinton and Potter counties, ICDL is being offered through Project TIME (Technology Initiatives for Meaningful Employment). The organization is a cooperative among the Philadelphia Mayor's Commission on Technology, the Rural Collaborative (K-CNet, Lock Haven University and the Potter County Education Council) and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Foundation Inc., funded in part by a grant from the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority.
Through Project TIME, 1,000 Pennsylvania residents – 500 in both urban and rural areas – who are in need of basic computer skills will be identified and recruited to participate in ICDL.
International standard
ICDL has become the international standard in computer literacy for employers, educational institutions and government agencies in 135 countries.
Earning ICDL certification means complete confidence using any personal computer, regardless if it's running Microsoft Windows or other commercial operating systems.
Benefits for ICDL Certification Candidates
Receiving an ICDL certification is almost like having a ticket to jobs across the globe. Because the certification is recognized internationally, it informs current and prospective employers that you are competent in fundamental IT skills. You also gain self-confidence from knowing you can use a personal computer and today's most critical computer software applications.
You will develop the confidence to use computers at home and in the workplace and to become a more productive citizen in the global digital society.
By gaining a better working knowledge of fundamental personal computer applications, you can improve your quality of life.
Your newfound range of basic computer skills forms a solid foundation to build more computer literacy – an ICDL can take you anywhere.
Benefits to a Sponsoring Organization
If you're a business owner or a manager of an organization, ICDL can do wonders for your operations and employee morale.
You will establish a tangible computer literacy standard for new and current employees, helping to ensure consistent and desired levels of IT ability throughout the organization.
By improving employee productivity, you will enable better returns from investments in IT while reducing demands on personal computer support staff.
You can identify training needs of employees and measure the effectiveness of training programs.
ICDL can be used as a highly effective and innovative model for designing fundamental IT education and training for the company.
You will reduce the inherent risks in recruiting, hiring and promotion decisions.
You will help motivate staff, increasing their self-esteem and sense of achievement.
Objectives of ICDL
Because technology plays a fundamental role in the lives of people everywhere, the ICDL Foundation has established the certification program with the following objectives in mind:
Promote and encourage computer literacy for people in all walks of life.
Raise the level of knowledge about information technology and the level of competence in using personal computers and common computer applications.
Ensure all computer users understand best practices and the advantages of using a personal computer.
Increase the productivity of all employees who need to use computers in their work.
Enable better returns from investments in IT.
Provide a fundamental qualification that will allow all people, regardless of their background, to be part of the global “Information Society.”
ICDL Certification
ICDL certification means that you have mastered basic IT concepts and are able to use a personal computer and common computer applications at a fundamental level of competence.
Certification tells a prospective employer or other sponsoring organization that you passed one theoretical test that assesses knowledge of the fundamental IT concepts and seven performance-based tests that assess competence in using a personal computer and working with common computer software applications.
Upon successful completion of the seven ICDL tests, you will receive an ICDL Computer Competency Certificate. Learn more about the ICDL process.
ICDL stands for the International Computer Driving License, a program of ICDL-US which distributes the certification program in the United States.
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In today's workplace, a wide range of employees – from secretaries to middle managers to chief executives – need up-to-date computer skills to be effective and efficient in their jobs. When they lack the basics, it can inhibit them professionally. And ultimately, it has an impact on the worker's employer and a business' bottom line.