Certiport Releases Initial Findings for 2006 World Report on Digital Literacy at PATHWAYS International Conference

Study outlining successive stages to close the Digital Divide identifies standing of digital literacy among priorities facing responding nations

ORLANDO (Certiport PATHWAYS 2006) – August 8, 2006

Certiport today presented the first phase of unique qualitative research that identifies the importance of digital literacy among national governments worldwide. Based on input from a global array of policy makers, researchers, advisors, administrators and educators in the 2006 World Report on Digital Literacy (WRDL), 62 percent of responding nations indicated digital literacy ranked as one of the top five issues facing their country today, including 13 percent of respondents that ranked it as their nation’s highest priority.

“Getting to the heart of how nations perceive and address the Digital Divide is the key strength of the World Report on Digital Literacy,” said David Saedi, president and CEO of Certiport. “More than a series of proxy measurements to gauge the impact of the Divide, this qualitative research focuses on the mind frame of leaders to understand the issues, concerns and influences that drive how national governments meet the challenges of reaching out to the digitally isolated.”

Presented at the Certiport PATHWAYS™ 2006 world conference by acclaimed workforce and human development strategist and study collaborator Dr. Joyce Malyn-Smith of Education Development Center (EDC), the 2006 WRDL groups countries’ efforts to bridge the Digital Divide into one of four mutually exclusive stages. Each successive stage charts a nation’s progress in reaching the digitally isolated through outcomes-driven initiatives.

Overall, 80 percent of country respondents reported action in addressing the Digital Divide in one of the four stages. Within these stages, 26 percent of countries have acknowledged the Divide as a concern (Stage 1), and 19 percent have made addressing the Divide a priority (Stage 2). According to respondents, 9 percent of countries have implemented one or more initiatives to close the gap (Stage 3) while an additional 26 percent also monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of those initiatives (Stage 4). Another 20 percent of responding nations have no known government agenda for combating the Digital Divide.

“One of the more encouraging findings of the study shows countries that implement programs to narrow the Digital Divide chose to create ICT infrastructure enhancement programs in tandem with digital literacy initiatives for its citizenry almost without exception,” said Malyn-Smith. “This demonstrates a deeper understanding of government leaders that defines digital isolation as a personal-skills deficiency in addition to Internet inaccessibility or outmoded computer hardware, for example.”

In regional activity to bridge the Digital Divide, Asia Pacific recorded a steady growth of nations trending toward Stage 4 activity. In Europe, the highest concentration of reporting countries in the 2006 WRDL are focused in Stage 2, which makes the narrowing of the technological skills gap a priority issue. Country respondents in the Middle East and Africa indicated the majority of nations are coming to understand the Digital Divide and the scope of its effects in Stage 1. Low overall frequency counts from preliminary responses for North and South American countries are characterized by a fairly uniform distribution throughout the stages.

Among other notable initial findings is the country respondents’ overall ranking of national priorities from 13 potential issues. Joining digital literacy in the list of top-five priorities responding countries confront are education and literacy, development of public services and infrastructure, economic development and global competitiveness and, finally, empowerment of underserved populations.

The World Report on Digital Literacy is a multi-year research effort that initiated in March 2006. A total of 62 countries were represented in the first phase of the research with 29 nations providing comprehensive reporting on their information and communications technology (ICT) issues. Research for the WRDL will be on-going with regular reports on key findings.

About Certiport

Certiport provides industry-leading training, assessment and certification solutions that enable individuals to develop the skills necessary to achieve more, distinguish themselves and advance in today's academic and business environments. These solutions include the Certiport Internet and Computing Core Certification (IC³®), the Microsoft Office Specialist Certification Program and Microsoft IT Academy delivered through a channel of more than 10,000 Certiport Centers worldwide. For more information about Certiport, visit www.certiport.com.

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