EU’s Barroso receives 9 millionth ECDL Skills Card

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has recently received the 9 millionth ECDL Skills Card at a ceremony highlighting both the success of the ECDL programme and the necessity of keeping investment in digital skills high on the public policy agendas of all member states in order to increase employability and build a competitive European economy.
The ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) programme, known outside Europe as ICDL (International Computer Driving Licence) to reflect its international unified standard, is a global certification that recognises the competence of an individual in essential computer skills required in our personal and professional everyday life.
Being not-for-profit and vendor neutral earned the ICDL programme a prominent reputation and a special status that made it the international benchmark for computer literacy. ICDL quickly became a prerequisite for employment in the public sector particularly for teachers, and was integrated in educational systems worldwide.
The milestone of enrolments in the ECDL/ICDL programme also reflects the success of the programme in the Arab region, including the ICDL GCC Foundation and the UNESCO Cairo Office that jointly account for over 1 mln of the 9 mln enrolments.
President Barroso noted that "digital literacy is part of basic competences such as reading and writing and that this is the message the Commission is conveying to all European citizens; in this difficult economic situation many workers will need to be re-trained and the digital competences they can gain will help them find new opportunities for a better life."
To help address the economic situation, the European Commission has launched the European Economic Recovery plan which calls for ‘smart investment’ to yield higher growth and sustainable prosperity in the longer-term. It calls on member states to invest more in education and re-training to protect Europe’s citizens from the worst of the economic crisis. As part of this plan, the Commission has proposed a 1 bln euro investment to bring broadband to rural areas. However, unless this investment is supplemented with IT training, Europe risks an additional widening of the digital divide in areas where digital literacy levels already lag behind the European average according to a 2008 Eurostat report indicating that in 2007, 49% of citizens in sparsely populated areas never used the Internet.