Vodafone educates 500,000 youths in computers

Some 500,000 young people across Turkey have mastered key information and technology skills through the Turkish Vodafone Foundation’s “Bridging the Digital Divide” campaign.

The United Nations announced in 2000 that one of its key millennium goals was to increase people’s well-being and quality of life. The foundation believes increasing the capacity of societies in information and communication technology plays a key role in these development goals.

With this in mind, the foundation teamed up with the United Nations Development Program and the Youth for Habitat Foundation to launch the project, which aims to accelerate the e-transformation process throughout the world and support youth to actively participate in the process.

The project’s Turkish participants, who typically come from low socio-economic backgrounds and did not otherwise have any knowledge of information technology, have benefited from the initiative as they aid in the country’s e-transformation process.

“In just one year we have given thousands of youth the foundations for what are some of the most important skills that can be acquired for their futures,” foundation chairwoman Rengin Onay said.

The project is part of a larger campaign that aims to reach out to one million youth in 81 countries in a similar fashion. The youth participate in an online training program working to obtain their European Computer Driving License, or ECDL. In addition to basic information technology skills such as word processing and emailing, the youth are given instruction about the Internet and 3G technology systems.

Through this system, the young people are also given the opportunity to participate in online forums where they can interact with others participating in the computer literacy programs.

An education management system, meanwhile, will also gather data and assess the potential of the young people following their courses.