The ECDL (European Computer Drivers Licence) is quickly becoming a recognised qualification because any person can obtain this qualification rather than geared more towards the IT professional. Many further education establishments are providing this type of qualification to the general public, not just the typical RSA or City & Guild certification that has been around for many years.
The ECDL is supported by the British Computing Society and is an internationally accepted certificate of knowledge and proven competence based on a single agreed syllabus. The aims of this programme are to improve the level of basic knowledge of Information Technology (IT) and to provide a higher level of basic competence in using personal computers and common computer applications throught Europe. Having experienced the ECDL, many organisations have stated that they are intended for the complete novice, however, some basic experience of PC's would certainly be recommended before commencing this type of qualification as this would make the ECDL process an easier and more rewarding task than attempting right away. Many training providers do recommend completion of a basic computing course before attempting the ECDL, one for example could be the City & Guild 7370 certificate.
You can visit the British Computing Society website who have information about the ECDL or click on this link to go straight to this website. There is further information:
ECDL for the Individual or
ECDL for the Employer or
ECDL for the training provider.
Educational Multimedia Corporation have also developed e-learning courseware that covers the syllabus for version 3.0 of the ECDL and has been approved by the European Computer Driving Licence Foundation.
The course consists of over 14 hours of assessment and training on the ECDL's seven modules which are:
- Basic concepts of Information Technology
- Using a computer and managing files
- Wordprocessing
- Spreadsheets
- Databases
- Presentations
- Information and Communication, including e-mail and browsing the world-wide web.
This course has been designed so that it can be accessible via the Internet, company Intranets, LANs, thin client and CD-ROM.
The ECDL qualification has now over 800,000 students registered and are expected to reach 1,000,000 by year-end according to the ECDL Foundation.
