ICDL certification programme has more than 8 years in Colombia. Since 2008, Fundación ICDLColombia works with a clear mission to contribute to closing the digital divide in the country. In that sense it collaborates with various institutional partners: the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Education, State governments, mayors and private sector entities such as companies, universities, schools, among others.
Since 2009 one of the main Digital Literacy projects implemented was through the introductory Citizen Digital Certification programme, ICDL Colombia initiative funded by MinTIC. This initiative had the goal to certify introductory digital skills and the use of Internet and use of the Internet by citizens, with the aim that they are used responsibly and productively. Several agreements were signed with MinTIC to promote and develop the Digital Citizen Programme skills, developed under the ICDL e-Citizen international standards corresponding to the initial level of the ICDL digital skills certification. According to the objectives of the government-owned public policy Vive Digital, which seeks to promote access, use and massive appropriation of ICT, civil workers became the priority group at an early stage. So public servants, teachers and the police werethe first to be certified as digital citizens including the President of Colombia, all his Ministers and 70% of the members of the National Police. By 2016 more than 130,000 people have been trained and certified in this Profile Citizen Digital.
In the education sector development programmes and certification of digital skills of teachers have been implemented in both public and private sectors. In Medellin, the Ministry of Education of the Municipality and ICDL Colombia promoted since 2014 the project “International Certification of Digital Skills for qualified teachers in Medellin” that culminated in 2015 with more than 400 regional who gained the ICDL international certification out of a group of 700.
In the field of training for work, it is also working with the National Apprentice Service (SENA) to train their instructors with the aim of ensuring they possess the necessary digital skills to include ICT in their teaching activities and daily work. In the first stage 1,000 instructors from SENA were trained and certified in a process that ended in December 2015 in seven cities: Armenia, Barranquilla, Bogota, Bucaramanga, Cali, Medellin and Neiva, and which will continue in the coming years.
Other ICDL Profile promoted by Colombia is to the +Teleworking. With the goal of promoting the culture of teleworking in Colombia, both the MinTIC as Ministry of Labour support the ICDL international certification that guarantees the digital skills necessary for teleworking. Several projects have been developed since 2014, including training and certification of 70 MinTIC public servants.