Learning
computer skills
Castleknock Hotel & Country Club was the venue for a most unusual
gathering recently when over 100 local people ranging in age from early
teens to eighties received their certificates affirming their newly
acquired computer skills. The award ceremony followed their participation
in the e-Cert computer training programme organised throughout Dublin
15 by the Blanchardstown Area Partnership (BAP).
Over the past few months in nine different venues around the community
145 men, women and teenagers have been attending a practical computer
course aimed introducing them to the use of technology in everyday situations
such as shopping, on-line, banking, booking tickets, employment searches,
preparing cv's and using e-mail.
According to Catherine Durkin, , Education Co-ordinator with BAP “e-Cert
is an initiative aimed at bridging the digital divide by offering computer
training to communities who might otherwise not have any computer access.
“In Blanchardstown we made a big effort to get as many local groups
as possible to participate, from teens to much older people. We had
ladies from the travellers’ group, pupils from the local schools,
as well as senior citizens and parents of schoolchildren who wanted
to be able to work with their children,” she said.
According to Philip O’Connor of the Dublin Employment Pact who
initiated the project throughout Dublin with funding from the Department
of an Taoiseach, “over 2,500 people took part across Dublin. Here
in Blanchardstown 145 people took part under the initiative organised
by the Partnership.”
Explaining the reasoning behind e-Cert, he said “this project
is based on the fact that while a lot of computer education is delivered
in our schools, we have to ask the question ‘how do you learn
if you are outside the school system?’ We decided to design a
course around what people actually needed in their own lives. We also
used the concept of peer group training so that people in the group
were skilled up to train others in their group.
”
Presenting the awards, Tom Kitt TD, Minister of State at the Department
of the Taoiseach said “financial support is only an enabler for
projects such as this. While it is an important support, this project
wouldn’t happen without the involvement of local organisations
and the co-operation between local groups and statutory agencies.”
One of the surprising aspects of the project was the take-up rate among
older people anxious to learn computer skills. In response to this the
Minister announced other initiatives aimed at providing further training
to older people.
“One area my department is proposing to look at in the future
is the use of mobile phones and to give everyone an opportunity to make
fuller use of all the technology and facilities that are now available
through mobile phone technology. We will be starting a new outreach
programme for older people in the use of computers and mobile phones,”
he said.
Paying tribute to the various mentors, teachers and community leaders
who supported this project, the Minister said “as a former teacher,
I firmly believe that we should never cease to learn and that we are
never too old to learn.”
Among those who took part in the course and received their certificates
from the minister were a group of clients of Dublin 15’s Friendly
Call service. Speaking on their behalf, Brendan Gannon from Huntstown
told the audience “learning how to use a computer was something
we didn’t have when we went to school. It has been a very pleasurable
and wonderful experience for us and our new ability to use a computer
will be very useful to us in our everyday lives.”
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