Digital literacy top of agenda during e-Skills Week

This Friday (March 5th) Jim Friars, CEO of ICS Skills, and Mary Cleary, Professional Development Manager of ICS Skills, have been invited by FIT (Fastrack to IT) to take part in the e-Skills for Lifelong Learning Event.  ICS Skills has been involved in the promotion of e-Skills and digital literacy in Ireland since the launch of the highly successful ECDL (European computer Driving Licence) programme in Ireland in 1997. More than 500,000 Irish people have taken part in this programme.

This FIT seminar will bring together representatives from education, training and industry to discuss the importance of e-Skills in today’s workplace as well as strategies and challenges for up-skilling.

The Minister for Lifelong Learning, Sean Haughey T.D. will address the seminar and the event will feature a number of panel discussions. With contributions from experts in the fields of education and industry including Jim Friars and Mary Cleary of ICS Skills.  Jim Friars will contribute to “Competing with e-Skills” and Mary Cleary to “Smart Teachers-Smart Learners”. 

E-Skills week runs this week from the 2nd-6th March. This pan-European awareness-raising campaign promotes e-skills to the general public, students, young professionals and SME’s, and stresses the vast range of opportunities that ICT-related jobs present to encourage greater uptake of ICT studies and careers. 

ICS Skills has also announced today it will hold an awards ceremony at its headquarters in Crescent Hall on Friday 12th March.  These awards will recognise those who have completed and are taking part in ICS Skills courses, including ECDL and Equalskills to develop their e-Skills. 

ICS Skills has encouraged their 1,000 test centres to also be involved on a local level. West Cork Business & Computer Training is holding an open night, awards ceremony and also have a computer science student on hand to advise those considering studying IT. 

E-Skills are now an essential tool in day to day life as well as for many career paths. The e-Skills campaign spans 20 European countries and will reach over 300,000 people.