Testing of students 1.A for ECDL certificate

9:03
March 14 2023
News

Yesterday (13.3.2023) the testing of students 1.A for ECDL certificate took place (European Computer Driving Licence) demonstrating computer knowledge and skills.

What is ECDL / ICDL?

ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) is originally European project, which is now known worldwide as a digital competence training and certification concept that has gained sustainability thanks to its quality.

The concept is now known internationally as ECDL/ICDL (European/International Certification of Digital Literacy and Digital Skills). The ECDL/ICDL concept is based on the definition of an internationally agreed educational contentthat reflects the everyday needs of people in the labour market and society, particularly in the area of transferable digital knowledge and skills, while providing internationally recognised, standardised, objective and independent a method for testing learning outcomes (the so-called ECDL exam).

ECDL / ICDL covers almost all areas where digital technologies are used in everyday life. It covers the whole range of training and certification programmes in the field of digital competences, from programmes for primary and secondary school pupils and students to programmes for employers, the unemployed and the digitally disadvantaged, for the general public or for professionals in various fields.

Knowledge and skills in digital technologies are tested in the form of practical tests in a real environment using common desktop computers, laptops and tablets, mobile phones, various operating systems, commonly used applications, local networks and the Internet.

Those who successfully pass the ECDL/ICDL exams can obtain a number of internationally recognised certificates ECDL/ICDL has been recommended and used as a de facto international standard for many years, not only in EU countries.

QUALITY GUARANTEE

The uniform verifiability of ECDL/ICDL certificates and the overall quality of the ECDL/ICDL concept is guaranteed by the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS), a multinational organisation of computer science professionals, and the ICDL Foundation (until 2018 the ECDL Foundation), a non-profit foundation established in Ireland in 1997 with the support of the European Commission to coordinate, promote and develop the ECDL concept worldwide.

The Czech Association of Cybernetics and Informatics (CSKI), a member of CEPIS CSKI, a non-profit organization that ensures the quality of the ECDL/ICDL concept in the Czech Republic, was licensed to disseminate the ECDL concept in 1999.

The ECDL / ICDL exams can be taken in almost every country in the world and only in training organisations or test centresthat are accredited for this purpose by the relevant national licensee. Only specially trained examiners who are accredited for this purpose may mark the ECDL/ICCDL examinations.

GLOBAL STANDARD

The ECDL concept originated in Western Europe with the aim of define the minimum range and depth of digital knowledge and skills needed to use digital technologies effectively, efficiently and safely, while verifying them in a standardised, objective and independent way.

In November 2001, a high-level group of senior experts (representatives of EU Member States), ESDIS (Employment and Social Dimension of the Information Society), recommended that the European Commission create a European-wide certification system for basic IT skillsThe internationally defined educational content and uniform practical examinations have quickly become the standard not only in European countries, but worldwide.

A number of leading public and multinational companies have integrated the ECDL/ICDL concept into their staff training programmes; many national public administrations and organisations, not only in the EU, use the measurability of the digital competences of the ECDL/ICDL concept as a source of information for further training of their staff and as a tool for human resources policy. Thousands of schools around the world teach ECDL/ICDL and validate the knowledge and skills acquired through ECDL/ICDL certificate examinations. In this way they help school leavers to enter the labour market. The ECDL/ICDL concept is often used by ministries of education as a professional development tool. Many EU Member States also use the ECDL/ICDL concept as an independent tool for measuring the results of retraining.

Since 2014, the rapid development of digital technologies has prompted the European Commission to restructure existing education systems and standards in the area of national digital competences. As a result, the DIGCOMP universal education system was created: the ECDL/ICDL concept was one of the most prominent systems evaluated in the DIGCOMP project and proved to be a very good example of how the DIGCOMP system can be put into practice.

For up-to-date information on how the ECDL / ICDL concept is used in different countries and sectors of human activity, please visit the official website ICDL Foundation.