History of the European Computer Driving Licence - History of Computing: Learning from the Past - page 136

Information Society” advised that "instead of having 9 million people in long term
unemployment and de-skilling, the most expensive form of public spending with the
lowest return to the economy or the individual, and many more millions on their
way to long term unemployment, the Member States of the EU should have 9 million
involved in upgrading, maintaining and improving their skills in literacy, numeracy
and IT.” [8].
In the '90s there was much discussion about the new “Information Society” and the
different skills needed by all individuals to take full benefit of what the new society
could offer. It was recognized that the new Information Society in Europe would
affect everyone. The EU Commissioner Martin Bangemann noted in “The Informa-
tion Society and the Citizen” that we needed to make “greater efforts” in our schools
to prepare the next generation to participate and benefit fully from the Information
Society and to stimulate European citizens to create new services in education, enter-
tainment and business in order to keep Europe at the forefront of technology [9].
It was clear that there was a need but it was not clear how to define this. At this time
there was talk of computer literacy, digital literacy, end user skills and other defini-
tions. In 1997, Paul Gilster suggested that to be digitally literate a person should be
able to find information on line in web sites, databases and other on line information
resources, be able to evaluate that information and use email and search engines [10].
It was part of the vision of the CEPIS task force to address the issues raised above
and contribute to the successful development of an all inclusive Information Society.
3 The Beginning
The Finnish Computer Driving Licence (CDL) was introduced in Finland in January
1994 with the support of the Ministry of Education, the Central Organisation of Fin-
nish Trade Unions, the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers, the Finnish
Information Processing Association and the Ministry of Labour [11]. The first Com-
puter Driving Licences were awarded in early 1994 and some 10,000 had been issued
by December 1995. In 1995, the Finnish Information Processing Association (FIPA)
brought the CDL to CEPIS as a potential model for a wider European context.
The CEPIS task force (named the User Skills task force) met in 1995 to consider
how to increase the competence required for the European work force and for the
European individual. This task force looked for a suitable model and examined the
Finnish CDL in detail. There were other models in Europe at that time and these were
also examined. After thorough study it was concluded that the basic Finnish concept
was widely applicable throughout Europe. However, changes and updates were re-
quired - the Finnish model consisted of a bank of questions which they called the
“question and test base” but had no defined syllabus [1].
In order to assess the modifications needed to have the ECDL meet the require-
ments of a wider marketplace, a series of pilot tests were carried out in Norway, Swe-
den, Denmark, France and Ireland. As a result of these tests and a thorough evaluation
of the concept, modifications were agreed. It was decided to name the concept “the
European Computer Driving Licence” or “ECDL”.
The pilot tests gave an opportunity to evaluate the concept from a number of view-
points. The pedagogical aspects were considered from the point of view of the breadth