E-centres services at local and regional level in Romania Balti, 20 Septembrie 2012

1. Digital inclusion for all! E-centres services at local and regional level in Romania Balti, 20 Septembrie 2012

2. Digital inclusion for all! Who we are? EOS – Romania is a local NGO based in Timisoara, a town situated in the Western part of Romania, in Banat region and is the residence of Timis County It has more than 300,00 inhabitants - the third most populous city in the country, conform to statistics from 2011.

3. Digital inclusion for all! What we are doing? EOS main purpose is to reduce the digital divide by creating and providing opportunities for all community members, in order to acquire ICT skills and abilities necessary to use information's and to create new knowledge's, things that are essential for participation in the development of an open society based on knowledge.

4. Digital inclusion for all! Projects and EOS directions Introduction and development of training programs in the area of the new technologies for the teachers from the preuniversitary education sector. Development of programs for the wider community, with a focus on the use of new technologies – including local and regional NGO’s.

5. Digital inclusion for all! • CERTIPRO – entry-level IT Certification in Romanian Schools • Fundatia EOS appointed as Certiport Authorised Partner for Romania • Certipro - EOS’s programme for delivering Certiport certification products. • What is CERTIPORT? • Global education technology company which develops, markets and distributes education and certification testing programs for computer users in the academic, corporate and workforce segments worldwide. • CERTIFICATION “ENTRY – LEVEL” • Certiport focuses on “entry-level” certification • Exams are developed by vendors, not by Certiport • Onlinetesting • Exams must be taken at Authorised Testing Centres • .

6. Digital inclusion for all! • ICT certification pyramid • . Professional IT Certifications Certifications to validate the basic strategic objectives for IT programs Professional IT Certifications Certification of IT skills for people with professional experience of 2 years or more Career oriented IT certifications fundamental (For those interested in a career in IT) Desktop User Certification Standard Global Certifications/Digital literacy – Introduction level

7. Digital inclusion for all! CERTIPRO PRODUCTS Foundation certification that measures knowledge of terminology and the basic IT skills Main performance certification based on digital literacy Certification for students to explore career options and academic technology Official certification program for Microsoft Office Top certification to validate digital communication skills of "entry-level" First certification of "architect-level" in the field, designed for academics "entry level” certification in software 2D and 3D

8. Digital inclusion for all! Why is necessary the certification? • Student benefits • Globally respected credentials; • A valuable “differentiator” and credential on a CV; • Demonstrates motivation and commitment; • Ensures students have ICT skills necessary for university or workplace; • Benefits for the school institutions • Students have better chances of entering university or gaining employment; • Strengthens the substance and value of curricula; • Provides reliable and validated tool to measure digital literacy of students; • Promotes improved teaching skills through enhanced digital literacy

9. Digital inclusion for all! • Digital inclusion community projects at local and regional level • Get on line week campaign – national campaign called “Hai pe net” • European Get Online Week 2012 in Romania - locally branded as “Haipe Net!” - was organized and coordinated by EOS Foundation (Educating for an Open Societyhttp://www.eos.ro/Pagina.asp?id=87) in cooperation with Digital Alliance for Romaniahttp://aliantadigitala.ro/ during 26 – 30 of March. • The objective of Get Online Week was to help get people through the doors of their local telecentres , enabling staff to build people’s confidence to move on into more structured learning about technology and the benefits it brings to their personal and professional lives. • The campaigns target group was identified based on the statistics regarding digital skills and usage of technology today - and the main focus were on: • People that never used a computer and do not knowledge the benefits of ICT; • Young people aged between 16 to 24 years, that don’t have the digital skills needed and/or do not know how to use software packages required on the labor market; • Unemployed people; • Seniors.

10. Digital inclusion for all! • Digital inclusion community projects at local and regional level • Get on line week campaign – national campaign called “Hai pe net” • Tools used during the campaign by e-centres • Skillage (www.skillage.eu)- tool for youngsters - online software application that helps to understand the more sophisticated ICT skills is needed for the job market. • Employment Toolkit - www.keycompetences.eu/wordpress/ - for unemployed part of the community and for those who are looking for a better job; • Online safety - http://www.copiidisparuti.ro/ • 576 telecentres participated in the national campaign • The activities developed by this telecentres referred to: • first click, e-Government services, e-Banking, online women, online seniors, intergenerational learning or online services;

11. Digital inclusion for all! • Get on line week campaign – national campaign called “Hai pe net” • Impact of Get Online Week in Romania • 15 760 Romanians, in only one week, participated in Get Online Week. • 77% participated in the Get Online Week campaign from Telecentres, 13% from home and 19% from work. • With this, Romania came third in terms of rate of participation in the European Get Online Week Campaign.

12. Digital inclusion for all! Digital inclusion community projects at local and regional level It is intended primarily for local communities especially in rural areas or small towns; even if the funds for this project were stopped by Microsoft Corporation, the curriculum elaborated within the project continue to be used by the national telecentres in their ICT trainings. The curriculum has 8 course modules based on the Microsoft Office applications, and they are available for free for community members.

13. Digital inclusion for all! Digital inclusion community projects at local and regional level BIBLIONET PROJECT – his main objective is to ensure access to information by introducing modern technology in public libraries, given the fact that 64% of Romanian never used the Internet. Within the project EOS worked in partnership with: Microsoft Corporation, partner of the program Global libraries. Irex Foundation; Romanian Ministry of Culture; Public libraries in Romania.

14. Digital inclusion for all! Digital inclusion community projects at local and regional level • The program was financed by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and his scope was to equip the public libraries with computers and to develop a modern system of public libraries in Romania. • EOS role in the project was to: • Facilitate the access to information; • To train the librarians; • Promote the value of libraries in the community.

15. Digital inclusion for all! Digital inclusion community projects at local and regional level E-aptitudini program The concept of the program is based on collaboration between corporate domains (Microsoft), institutional (MEC and MCSI) and NGO sector: Junior Achivement Romania; Nadia Comăneci Foundation; Civitas Foundation; e-centre network in România; The Association of Producers and Distributors of ICT equipment; EurActiv; National Association of Public Libraries in Romania and last but not least EOS România Foundation.

16. Digital inclusion for all! Digital inclusion community projects at local and regional level • The program offers the access to a portal that where the courses and the educational resources are constructed as a pyramid with three levels, namely: • the basic IT knowledge; • Knowledge for employability and entrepreneurship; • Knowledge for IT professionals, focusing on the first level. • The portal is also an important mean of orientation for community members regardless their age, education and profession in the consultation of systematic national supply of courses and educational resources on training and improving the skills needed to use the computer;

17. Digital inclusion for all! • ICT training and activities for regional NGO’s • ICT accredited courses as “Operator text and image processing” - for young people young people that are leaving from orphanages and should be integrated into society and the labour market. • Establishing partnerships with the with General Directorate for Child Protection and other NGO’s that have this type of beneficiaries from Timis County. • Basic It training for adults with easy mental disabilities for the beneficiaries of the most important NGO for people adult with mental disabilities in the Banat region.

18. Digital inclusion for all! PR and ICT courses for NGO representative A special course was especially designed for NGO’s staff and he is entitled “PRomIT - public relations in IT context” – he was elaborated as a result of a detailed analysis of the needs of the NGOs in the Western region; The course was until now offered for free for the organizations and more than 45 NGO’s representatives benefited of this course. During the course the participants can learn about: Image. Reputation. PR within the NGO’s Which is the role of a specialist in PR; Public relations activities; Important public relations materials; Online fundraising; Online PR tools;SEO - search engine optimization - online promotion

19. Digital inclusion for all! • Telecentres network in Romania/e-centres • In Romania telecentres are different structures and they were established by different actors and through various programs. • Therefore we have many types of telecentres: • E-centre network - that was established by EOS Foundation with the support of the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Program since 2007 until present and which has in the present a number of 40 active centres).The e-centres are educational centres, non-profit or community organizations. • Public Access Points to Information – these centres were created through the "Knowledge- based Economy" project, initiated by the Romanian Government through the Communications and Information Society Ministry supported by the World Bank. • Libraries with free access to internet and IT trainings - telecentres that were equipped with computers for the public through the Biblionet project, funded by the Foundation Bill and Melinda Gates.

20. Digital inclusion for all! • Main activities implemented in the local e-centre in Romania • Employability Toolkit • 10 e-centres managers, piloted with 5 people from their community, the Employment Toolkit developed during the program “Grundtvig – Key competences for all”. • The Feed-back received at the end of this training helped to improve and to better localize the Romanian version of this guide. • Good results of piloting the Employability Toolkit conducted to the use of this tool in their local e-centres with persons that are looking for a job. • The Toolkit is developed in partnership with other 4 organizations from Belgium, Spain, United Kingdom and Latvia. Also he is translated in every one of the partners language and is available for free at: http://www.keycompetences.eu/wordpress.

21. Digital inclusion for all! • Main activities implemented in the local e-centre in Romania • TRAINING is one of the major services provided through the telecentre network that are supporting the skills development. • Training (ICT and soft skills development) • Events • Other services (fundraising, scanning, renting, etc.) • ICT training • Accredited ICT Courses as “Operator text and image processing”, “Entry operator, data processing and validation”, “Electronic Computer and Network Operator” – which are certified by Romanian Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Education. • ICT Courses – without certification • Save time! Use Internet banking, • Grandparents online, • Balance cost – efficiency, • ICT for youngster in the local communities – web design, blogs.

22. Digital inclusion for all! • Main activities implemented in the local e-centre in Romania • Personal and professional courses – soft skills development • Train of Trainers Course, • Be a Successful Manager – Leadership, • Entrepreneurship courses: • Be entrepreneur, • Communication in business, • Marketing Basics, • Basic Accounting and financial management, • Business plan development, • How to establish a business. • EVENTS • Employability Campaigns/Job Shop • Get Online Week/Haipe Net!

23. Digital inclusion for all! Thank you! +40 256 498 172 Cornelia Popescu, Project coordinator EOS Romania www.eos.ro office@eos.ro; cornelia.popescu@eos.ro