Improving IT Skills Through ICDL Programme

Jamaican businesses are being encouraged to enhance their employees’ competencies in information technology (IT) through certification by the International Computer Drivers Licence (ICDL) programme.
This, as a number of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) took part in a sensitization seminar on the ICDL certification programme, which is being promoted by the Jamaica Computer Society Education Foundation (JCSEF).
The seminar took place last week at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston under the auspices of the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology and the National Council on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET). It was titled “Unleash the Power of Your ICT Skills”.
ICDL is an internationally recognized and accepted qualification that enables persons to verify their competence in core computer skills and IT knowledge. It is a test of practical skills and competencies and the syllabus is designed to cover key concepts of computing, their practical applications and their use in the workplace and society in general.
The ICDL course is believed to be capable of “power steering” computer users down the super information highway.
Director of Technology in the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology, Roland Phillips said that the ICDL programme was “critical to the efforts of the Government, not only in terms of training, but in making ICT more pervasive throughout our society”.
Mr. Phillips noted that the increasingly diversified and rapidly changing workforce has made training and retraining an important activity, not only of government and private sector, but of individuals as well. He added that as society moved further into the knowledge and information age, the concept of lifelong learning was even more crucial.
The Director of Technology observed that the ICDL was “fast becoming one of the most widely recognised computer qualifications in the world”. This, he said was due to its relevance “to practically everyone” as well as the support and monitoring it received from the organisations that were behind it.
Senior Director at the JCSEF, Michele Baboolal, noted that the ICDL certification programme was independent of any hardware or software products and carried seven modules. The seven modules are: Basic Concepts of Information Technology, Using the Computer and Managing Files, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Database, Presentation and Graphics and Information and Communication, i.e., e-mail and Internet research.
She pointed out that Module 1 on Basic Concepts was the only theoretical test, as all the other topics were practical.
The Infoserv Institute of Technology will be the main training partner for the programme, with face-to-face training taking place at employees’ organisations or at Infoserv’s island wide locations. Alternatively, students may use a self-study material, which is available in text, CD-ROM or Internet based. There is also an option for “blended training”, which is a combination of self-study and face-to-face learning.
Individuals can sit tests for the different modules at any authorised Test Centre in the world or at the Jamaica Computer Society Education Foundation ICDL Test Centre in Kingston.
In encouraging CEOs to embrace the programme and have their employees ICDL certified, Miss Baboolal pointed out that a pilot project of the programme was conducted on staff at the United Kingdom National Health Service and it was revealed that staff morale was increased from 65 per cent to 83 per cent. The programme was also helpful in saving up to three hours of working time per week that employees spent trying to solve their own or co-workers’ computer problems.
Prior to the introduction of the ICDL programme to several companies around the world, Miss Baboolal said it was observed that inadequate IT training led to poor end-user utilisation of technology that resulted in poor returns to the organisations for their investment in IT. As a result, senior managers developed a poor perception of IT and restricted their training budgets, thus perpetuating a cycle of inadequate training in IT.
According to her, companies that invested in ICDL training for their employees got significantly higher returns to their organisation for their investment in IT.
In her remarks at the seminar, Senior Director at the NCTVET, Paulette Dunn-Smith said that her organisation has recognised and fully endorsed the ICDL certification. “We want to encourage and charge you as CEOs to encourage your employees to upgrade their own skills to include this certification, which is portable, has currency and is internationally recognised,” she said.