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International Computer Driving License

Basic Computing Skills for Life

i-Tekk Management Group, working in partnership with the Ohio IT Clearinghouse.

If you’ve been thinking about getting a new job, or moving up in your current job, or perhaps going back to school to advance your career, you’ve probably come to realize that computing skills are now a part of the key skill set you need to have to succeed.

But the problem is how do you find out what basic computing skills are, and then how do you prove that you actually have them?

To help solve that problem, we’ve launch an initiative called Ohio Computing Unlimited, unlimited because we know that with adequate computing skills, your career is unlimited.

You’ll be able to increase you job performance, and raise you pay. So we’ve introduced a program that provides basic computing skills. It’s called the International Computer Driving License or ICDL.

The ICDL is a standard definition of basic computing skills. Given that Ohio competes on an international market, these days, at almost every level, this is just the kind of standard that we want to measure ourselves against.

The ICDL is also an international certificate that proves what you have learned. It’s focused not on how a computer works; this is not a program about electronics. What you really need to know is how to create and save documents, how to find and organize and then save information. And then how to do basic calculations and arrangements with numbers, and so on.

The ICDL stands for and focuses on practical functions, and describes basic computing skills in seven fundamental modules.

First, there’s Basic Concepts.

Then File management & operating system tools.

Word Processing and document management

Spreadsheets and basic calculations

Presentation tools

Database tools and

And of course, Internet and email tools.

The idea is not to become an expert in these applications through the ICDL program, but to know enough to be functional.

We’re working with Ohio’s community colleges and university satellite campuses to provide the instruction you might need to get up to speed in these areas.

ICDL also covers the second big concern, how to prove what you know. To get an ICDL certificate, you have to pass a brief test for each module. When you successfully complete the test, you get a certificate, plus a card, not unlike a regular driver’s license, that you can show to an employer to prove that you have actually demonstrated the basic skills necessary to succeed on the job or in school.

Now don’t be worried about the tests. Some people get very nervous about that kind of thing. The Ohio ICDL will provide a number of tools designed to help you succeed.

Our interest is in your individual success, not failure. While you have to get the knowledge, and you have to go to the trouble to prove it, we want to give you every possible tool to help.

If you feel you’re already beyond the skills of ICDL, you might want to sign up to get the certificate just so you’ll have something to prove, quickly, that you know your stuff.

So that’s it.

The ICDL is a program that gives you and your employer a well defined and internationally agreed to definition of basic computing skills.

And ICDL gives you a way to prove that you can do. If you can show your own ICDL card or certificate, you’ve earned the right to say, I have basic computing skills.

So check it out today.

If you have access to the Internet, and go to www.OhioComputingUnlimited.org. all the information you need is there.

Or you can call the Continuing education department of a community college, or satellite campus.

Or you can call the Ohio Computing Unlimited Hotline, and leave you contact information to receive further info. Just call 614-388-8886.

As Allen Kay once said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” And the best way for you to predict you own future, is to get the education you need to succeed.

Ohio Computing Unlimited and the Ohio IT Clearinghouse are projects of the Ohio Learning Network funded by the Ohio Board of Regents.