What you need to know about out ICDL Digital Student.

ICDL is the world's leading digital skills certification, which helps people to develop and certify their skills in using a computer. Consisting of a number of modules, with the flexibility for teachers to choose the topics that meet the needs of their students, ICDL is an ideal way for schools to help develop their students' digital skills.

Schools around the world use ICDL. The programme offers both flexibility, and a range of levels, along with an up-to-date offering that is kept to rigorously high standards around the world. Students can benefit from an internationally recognised certification that is mapped to a number of qualifications frameworks and standards, and which integrates with curricula in several countries.

To date, over 16,000,000 people have engaged with ICDL, and thousands of schools, colleges and universities have adopted ICDL to build and certify their students' digital skills.

Why are Digital Skills Important?

In both our private lives, and our working lives, technology is already indispensable. There are few, if any, jobs that don't need some level of computer use, and government and commercial services, like tax, unemployment, insurance, or health-care, are increasingly online.

In short, nobody can get by without digital skills. But, just as nobody can get by without digital skills, it is also the case that nobody is born with the ability to use a computer. Digital competences have to be learnt. 'Digital natives', born with the ability to do anything with a computer, don't exist, they are created through learning.

Digital skills, from the basic digital literacy of working with files and folders, and getting about online, to the more advanced topics of coding, developing 'information literacy', and understanding how to stay safe online, should be a key part of any young persons' education. Being equipped with the right digital skills means being equipped for the future of work and life.