History of the European Computer Driving Licence - History of Computing: Learning from the Past - page 143

most suitable to meet the needs for implementing ECDL throughout Europe. It gave
protection to the members, being the Member Societies of CEPIS, as well as allowing
the organisation to function as a business with charitable objectives. All surplus reve-
nues were retained within the Company and used to further the objects of the Com-
pany as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.
The licensees became members of the ECDL Foundation and are the controlling
body. They elect the board of the ECDL Foundation at the Annual General Meeting.
The Board of the ECDL Foundation consists of a maximum of seven persons elected
at the General Meeting.
It was decided to locate the ECDL Foundation in Dublin because of the infrastruc-
ture in that country for supporting the Software Industry. The tax arrangements were
potentially attractive and some grants had been secured to help finance the initial set
up costs of the ECDL Foundation. The ECDL Foundation needed a very skilled and
motivated staff, in order to succeed with the ambitious goals and plans for the organi-
sation. The skills included solid IT, educational and pedagogical backgrounds,
combined with marketing, business and administrative experience. Experience with
international work and co-operation was also an absolute requirement. As detailed in
the first implementation plan, the ambition levels required 4 - 8 staff for the 5-year
plan period. It was planned that the ECDL Staff in Dublin would have a central ca-
pacity of 3 early in 1997, and then increase to 4. Other people resources would be
recruited on a consulting basis from the other ECDL Foundation Member countries,
in order to encourage use of Best Practices within the ECDL community. This model
ensured flexibility and transfer of knowledge [21].
7 Conclusions
ECDL has gained a reputation as a standard for digital literacy in many countries. The
largest adopters of ECDL in total numbers are the UK and Italy. In the latter, all
school children undergo training in ECDL. In both countries the Government De-
partments of Education provided funding in various ways. ECDL also performs well
in a social sense being used in prisons in Austria and in Refugee Camps in Gaza. The
largest penetration per head of population is in Ireland where over 10% of the work-
ing population has achieved ECDL.
ICDL continues to be successfully implemented throughout the world, most re-
cently being adopted in Kenya where the Information & Communications Minister
announced that ICDL is to be the sole government recognised entry level computer
certification with which to demonstrate competence in computer usage. ICDL has
been adopted in Jordan where all teachers must achieve the ECDL and by UNDP as a
standard for the training of staff throughout the development programme.
The success of ECDL is due to many factors which have contributed to its accep-
tance throughout the World. Initially the word “European” in the title helped to give
the certification a degree of credibility before it was widely recognised. Also the fact
that it was included as one of the 27 projects in “Towards the Information Society -
Twenty-seven ideas for European Initiatives” at a time when the European Union was
preparing for expansion was extremely helpful [22]. ECDL was developed and
disseminated initially through Member Societies of CEPIS which was important in