ICT Certification in Action

The “certification jungle” of many overlapping qualifications has been described by earlier researchers as a “certification jungle”, with poor information, lack of clarity, confusing to candidates and employers, all to the detriment of the labour market. It has also been described as a “parallel universe” disconnected from national education systems. In an era where the global standards market is gaining more and more international importance and recognition, the ICT Skills Workshop has been operational since early 2003. The paper overlooks outcome and results of the CEN Workshop on ICT Skills since 2003. We take in particular focus on the ICT Certification in Action initiative which started early 2010. The e-CF provides the tool to help users, both individuals and employers, customers and suppliers, to find their way through the jungle or universe, parallel or converged. It provides a grid or two-dimensional framework of skill areas and levels to which every certification can be map-referenced.