Employers obession with ECDL...

kitten_caboodle · 20 Jun 2006 at 10:56

Sic said:
what's a right mouse button?

It's what people on the other side use

Kingy · 20 Jun 2006 at 10:59

kitten_caboodle said:
lol done that too. it appears that 'moving forward' ITIL is the way to go to 'delight your customers'.

Oh and do an extra module on the end of your ECDL (unit E I believe) and it's classed as a BCS Level 2 in Computing

Indeed, and it's the equivalent of 5 GCSE's/NVQ Level 2 as well (VRQ).

Unbelievable, I spent 3 years getting 5 GCSE's, (resat English) and then got an NVQ Level 2 equivalent in under 3 hours.

I can't comprehend how anybody with a minute amount of common sense can fail these exams. I did no coursework, can't use PowerPoint or Access for toffee and passed both with 100%.

Useless, politically motivated qualification imo.

FrenchTart · 20 Jun 2006 at 11:01

Anyone got any links to professional tech jobs that require this?

I'd look myself but I'm in work...

Sic · 20 Jun 2006 at 11:01

kitten_caboodle said:
It's what people on the other side use

ewwww

PhilthyPhil · 20 Jun 2006 at 11:20

Kingy said:
Indeed, and it's the equivalent of 5 GCSE's/NVQ Level 2 as well (VRQ).

Unbelievable, I spent 3 years getting 5 GCSE's, (resat English) and then got an NVQ Level 2 equivalent in under 3 hours.

I can't comprehend how anybody with a minute amount of common sense can fail these exams. I did no coursework, can't use PowerPoint or Access for toffee and passed both with 100%.

Useless, politically motivated qualification imo.

It always amuses me when someone says their NVQ/Btec/whatever is worth x GCSEs or A Levels. Says who? Some desk jockey in the Department for Education? What do they know? At the end of the day a qualification is worth whatever an employer considers it to be worth. Personally I would always favour GCSEs/A Levels/degrees (provided they were decent) over all these ‘vocational’ type qualifications

leaskovski · 20 Jun 2006 at 11:24

Does an ECDL mean i can drive a mac? Damn, what happens if i get caught mousing? Does that mean i will get points?

Blooming goverment! I bet its just another form of tax! :rolleyes:

Parsley · 20 Jun 2006 at 11:29

ECDL is a complete joke, I did it whilst I was doing my A-Levels because the school was offering it. A group of about 10 of us basically sat around the IT labs dossing about putting no effort in and still managed to pass it :rolleyes:

. Was a good laugh though.

Stellios · 20 Jun 2006 at 11:30

Good job i done it in college then

I really dont see why companies want it though, all it means is that your a bit more of a whippit around windows and office software. If your quick enough you can do it in a few days, i was doing 1-2 of the exams a week and had it out the way very quickly compared to my CLAIT+. Its worth it for the cool card though

Spacky said:
Database? pfft..bet they don't do Normalisation, ER Models and the rest.

Oh how i really do hate doing that

No, theres none of that, just basic use of databases. When i done it last year it wasnt a proper paper as such. 6 of the 7 are done on the PC and your presented with a picture and you have to click the correct part of the picture to correspond with the question, and the final paper was multiple choice, which makes it quite easy.

Screenshot of one of the questions (it was a test paper, honest).

Locrian · 20 Jun 2006 at 11:35

leaskovski said:
Does an ECDL mean i can drive a mac? Damn, what happens if i get caught mousing? Does that mean i will get points?

Blooming goverment! I bet its just another form of tax!

Ah no you see, the ECDL has a two button mouse clause. Besides, nobody is qualified to drive a mac

Rich1988 · 20 Jun 2006 at 12:03

cleanbluesky said:
And you know that left mouse button has a seperate function from right mouse button

This is true :eek:

I thought it was just a vicous rumour!!

Lagmeister · 20 Jun 2006 at 12:06

Stellios said:
CLAIT+

Dear god I remember my school trying to force me to do that, I was on first name terms with the resident techy person and hung about in the server room with a mate while we sorted out some problems with the server. They tried to get me to go to the classes but I managed to get out of them eventually.

Efour · 20 Jun 2006 at 12:09

I started an ECDL and put it on hold. The information on hardware they try and teach is about 5 years out of date. The way it was presented was so annoying in a flash styley.

Ill get back to it but ill have to punch myself now and then to get through it.

FrenchTart · 20 Jun 2006 at 12:21

I just hope I'm not forced into it. I've still got my RSA2 distinctions in various 'processing's and CLAIT1 and 2...more than enough office qualifications methinks! And all gained in high school... Says something about the ECDL to me.

pax · 20 Jun 2006 at 13:45

The European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) is the world's leading end-user computer skills certification programme.

It is internationally recognised as the global benchmark for end-user computer skills and is the leading certification to be adopted by governments, international organisations and corporations alike.

This says it all really, doesn't it.

When you are talking European, where outside Europe is it "internationally recognised"? Nowhere!!

*sigh*

I've never heard of it, and it sounds like a money making exercise from training companies to me. unless you work was paying for it, and giving you time off work to do it, then I wouldn't bother.

Also, considering it says "End User", no wonder none of us IT technicians have heard of it,

/rant

Pax

edit: Just one more

7. Information and Communication

I thought this was just normal English, how to translate what you see on the screen according to your actions, put into words the person on the other end can understand. Don't they teach English as a language anymore?

kitten_caboodle · 20 Jun 2006 at 14:03

Efour2 said:
I started an ECDL and put it on hold. The information on hardware they try and teach is about 5 years out of date. The way it was presented was so annoying in a flash styley.

Ill get back to it but ill have to punch myself now and then to get through it.

you don't have to do the flash online stuff. You can just do it out of a book. It's much better that way.

DeFrEaTs · 20 Jun 2006 at 14:17

I don't see how this would benefit an experienced worker at all... I could see inexperienced employers enforcing it though, as they don't know enough about it to say otherwise.

The Pat · 20 Jun 2006 at 15:31

Sounds an awful lot like key skills. If I can asked to do that after A level computing. I'm not gonna be happy. If you know what the DBMS is you shouldn't need to do it. Also you should have designed a program in your course, for me it was using access with visual basic as an interface, if they say go and learn how to create a table I would be tempted to walk out.

ben_j_davis · 20 Jun 2006 at 15:37

Well i have an IT degree and have got 2 years of professional IT experience. What the hell is MS Office, never used it, although saying that i've never used a computer. It's all been theory at my job.

Moredhel · 20 Jun 2006 at 15:38

The job spec for my last job listed such things as "Maintaining and developing with MySQL, MS SQL and Oracle on FreeBSD, Linux and Windows 2000/2003 platforms using C#, PHP and Java". then at the bottom of the same spec it said "Must be computer literate to at least ECDL level". I had to laugh.

FrenchTart · 20 Jun 2006 at 16:11

Moredhel said:
The job spec for my last job listed such things as "Maintaining and developing with MySQL, MS SQL and Oracle on FreeBSD, Linux and Windows 2000/2003 platforms using C#, PHP and Java". then at the bottom of the same spec it said "Must be computer literate to at least ECDL level". I had to laugh.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Hopefully it'll start to disappear now that the funding has been withdrawn (as 'that guy' said in a previous post).