Successfull completition of the European e-Skills Week
1000 certificates free of charge for the citizens of Serbia
JISA (Union of ICT Societies of Serbia) together with 150 licenced Test Centers has organized free computer training and ECDL testing throughout the country!
The closing ceremony of the e-Skills Week campaign for promoting digital literacy was held at the Main Hall of Media Center on March 5th. 2010.
JISA- Union of ICT Societies – as Pan European and national stakeholder of this campaign, in cooperation with more than 150 authorised ECDL-(European Computer Driving Licence) test centers throughout Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro provided during the last week free ECDL training and testing for all interested citizens.
Over 1.000 citizens took advantage of this opportunity and have thus been able to test their IT knowledge in line with European standards and acquire ECDL certificates, as their most wanted further education vocational diploma.
Representatives of JISA – Union of ICT Societies, Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society Development and representatives of the participants of this important event addressed the audience at the „Europe has chosen ECDL” conference.
Mr. Nebojsa Vasiljevic, Deputy Minister for Information Society, stressed the continuing need for IT education of all citizens of our country and pointed out the activities that will be conducted by this Ministry in the future.
Djordje Dukic, president of JISA- Union of ICT Societies of Serbia- said that last year even the President of the European Commission, Mr. Baroso decided to take the ECDL exams in order to set a personal example to point out the need of digital education in accordance with modern means of information and communication that are used in everyday activities.
Mr. Dukic highlighted the huge losses (about one million euros to 250 employees) that many companies and institutions are now unconsciously suffering by delaying testing of their employees.
Telecom, Electric Power Company, PTT, JatAirways, and many ministries and private universities invest every day in IT education of its staff and students, but the results achieved in Serbia are far below those of neighboring countries, and ten times lower in comparison to those in EU member states. This obliges us all to significantly increase future investments in educational infrastructure based on modern information and communication skills.
The journalists present were addressed by the representatives of various institutions who have provided free ECDL testing in their environments:
- Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, provided testing for 50 of its members in all sectors
- Electrical Engineering School Nikola Tesla, for all of its teachers
- Ministry of Finance ensured testing for its employees in the Directorate of Treasury during the last week
- The Gerontology Institute organized testing not only for their workers but also for interested users of its services.
- From the Serbia’s Association of Journalists 30 candidates successfully passed all tests and will soon receive ECDL diploma…
Such a wide scale simultaneous testing was made possible only with the help of internet application www.ecdltest.rs , and that is why ECDL test center EBC was highlighted at the conference as the main actor of this year's initiative, without whom the campaign would hardly have had such a level of success.
ECDL test center IAN was declared the best, based on the number of tests conducted on the territory of Belgrade, and as the most important partners in the implementation of ECDL e-Skills Week certification on the territory of Montenegro, the test centers Cikom, Digit Montenegro, Elipsa and Mediterranean University were indicated, who provided free of charge testing in Podgorica, Bar and Pljevlja for over 200 candidates. In Macedonia the free testing was organized by Test Center Semos and B-Kings Solutions for more than 60 candidates.
For more informations:
http://eskills-week.ec.europa.eu
www.cepis.org
www.eun.org
www.ecdl.rs
