Cape Town, 14 Nov 2011
"Enterprise Ireland is committed to supporting the ECDL/ICDL programme, working together with ICDL South Africa to replicate the success achieved worldwide." This was the sentiment affirmed by Ireland's Minister of State for Trade and Development, Jan O'Sullivan at a meeting with ICDL South Africa on 9 November. The two hour long session attended by Irish Ambassador Brendan McMohn and various Irish State Officials as well as representatives of Enterprise Ireland saw Minister O' Sullivan passionately commend the work being done by ICDL South Africa.
The meeting was also attended by key players from the City of Cape Town, Parliament, the UNDP, LRMG, the University of the Western Cape and Telkom.
Jenny van Niekerk, CEO of ICDL South Africa says that an endorsement of this magnitude goes a long way in enhancing credibility.
With over 11 million candidates in 148 countries, the success of the ICDL programme is far-reaching and its success in Ireland has literally changed lives.
After a severe economic downturn in Ireland in 2009/10, unemployment levels rose to the tune of 299,000 people, many of whom had poor digital literacy skills. F'AS, the Irish National Training and Employment Authority, established by Government started offering ECDL training due to the ECDL Certification's ability to address the digital literacy shortcomings of the unemployed. The knock-on effect was enormous with the need for additional training centres leading to job creation. In 2010, a total of 12,000 unemployed people were trained via FAS, Private Test Centres and e-learning. Integrity, quality, relevance, structure and industry recognition are some of the ECDL attributes that contributed to this success.
Globally, ICDL is already seen as the benchmark in terms of digital literacy and speaking about ICDL South Africa the Minister said: "The strong message I want to get across here is that ECDL/ICDL is a very important tool, very well developed, very effective and accessible and I believe it can make a real difference to SA society so it's a very strong endorsement here this afternoon."
CEO of ICDL South Africa, addressed this statement by saying: "For someone of the Minister's stature to take time during her trade mission to meet with ICDL is a huge honour and a clear testament to our success." The Minister went on to say that if ICDL can become as strong a brand as it is in Ireland it could make a real difference to the communities in South Africa and Ms. Van Niekerk agreed. "The Minister's endorsement was heartfelt and passionate, and means a lot to our organisation. As a not-for-profit organisation, we rely on endorsements such as these as opposed to marketing campaigns, which we simply do not have the budgets for."
"What the Minister did was encourage partnerships, which for us means growth and ultimately economic success," says Van Niekerk. ICDL believes that ICT skills and certification directly impacts the ability of people and organisations to engage effectively in society and participate in the economy.
The Minister pledged the support of Enterprise Ireland, an Irish trade and technology agency, which will open a permanent office in Johannesburg in January, as well as the Irish Government and is fully committed to ICDL South Africa.
Among the courseware providers, Skillsoft (an Irish e-learning company) has partnered with ICDL South Africa to deliver an elearning package. Their local representative Learning Resource Management Group is committed to growing and developing the certification in Africa.
Since 1999, ICDL South Africa has successfully trained over 300 000 candidates in over 400 registered testing facilities and its programmes have become the standard for digital literacy.
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