Johannesburg, 26 Apr 2012
A delegation from the South African e-Skills Institute visited Ireland for two days (18 and 19 April) to understand how the experiences of successful e-skills activities in Ireland can help advance the National e-Skills Plan of Action in South Africa, especially in terms of scalability and impact.
The success of ECDL in Ireland was a central theme of the event: delegates learnt how ECDL/ICDL has set the international benchmark for ICT certification in regard to curricula development. Derval Kennedy of the Innovation Value Institute also discussed a successful joint project conducted with CEPIS, 'e-Skills & ICT Professionalism'.
From a programme development perspective, the stakeholders present recognised a definite alignment of their vision for e-skills development in South Africa with ECDL Foundation's digital certification model. Jim Friars, Chairman of ECDL Foundation, presented on “Establishing and Developing an e-Skills Programme”, referencing the experiences of the recently concluded Unesco/ICDL project in Egypt, which saw more than one million Egyptians certified with ICDL within five years. In line with their aim to impact the lives of 10 million people over the next three to five years, the key policymakers present saw great potential in bringing such a project to South Africa.
The visit built upon the active role that ICDL South Africa has played since the inception of the e-Skills Institute project, and it concluded with a strong mutual desire to deepen their relationship to advance the National e-Skills Plan of Action.
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