ITA pilot trainees to hold graduation ceremony

On this occasion, H.E Khusaibi and Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, CEO & Chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization will present the graduates with Abu-Ghazaleh Cambridge IT Skills Award to the trainees who will be graduating with basic IT literacy under the Abu-Ghazaleh Cambridge IT Skills Center and the IC3 training programmes.

This pilot project was launched in early January this year in three locations comprising of employees of the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources. Each participating ministry had nominated about 100 employees to participate in Digital Literacy training and staff has been selected from the three training locations in Muscat, Nizwa and Sohar.

'The importance of the project is high as the results of this pilot will help us to guide us in identifying the best way forward in the implementation of the National IT training in a much larger scale', said Dr. Salim Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA. 'The success of this project is achieved through the assistance and commitment from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Civil Services, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment & Water Resources', he added.

The GITT is a pilot project under the 'National IT Training & Awareness Framework Initiative (NITTA) which is a government, nation-wide eOman initiative aimed at developing ICT skills capability and increasing ICT awareness within the government and the community. The GITT initiative aims to provide ICT training opportunities to the civil service employees in order in enable them to offer electronic services to the public and the businesses.

Salah Abu-Osbeh - AGCA Regional Executive Director said "His Majesty Sultan Qabous's vision and guidance has driven the Information Technology Authority towards leading the Oman e-government project, one of the very important components of this national project is the capacity building of the Oman employee's skills in IT and training of all government employees using a world class reputable program introduced by University of Cambridge and managed by the leading Arab Professional Firm Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization through a local Omani partner training Institute utilizing all the experience gathered from implementing similar huge government Digital Literacy Programs in other Arab countries. ITA has taken a special approach towards this initiative by running a pilot program to set the necessary milestone to successfully execute a country level IT skills training and certification program for all employees under the umbrella of MoCS."

"This is a breakthrough in Digital Literacy Certification in Oman," said Marie Taylor, Executive Vice President of Certiport EMEA. "Today not only recognizes the achievement of the largest 'single' certification program that has taken place in Oman - but also opens up opportunities for thousands of other ministry employees to participate in Oman's transformation to a digital society"

"To date," said Taylor, "There has been no shortage of investment in technology, but now we must match that with a investment in skills; to give people the skills to use the technology in the workplace. The shift in focus for the future will be from training to certification. Up-skilling of the Omani workforce is key to economic success in the region and the achievement of an internationally recognized certification such as the IC3 qualification will develop and validate employees' basic computer hardware, software and Internet knowledge and skills, measuring their ability to apply these skills and making them more productive in the actual workplace."

The trainees consist of a mix of male and female civil service employees with varying levels of IT literacy ranging from beginners, intermediates to experts. ITA has engaged Advanced Simulation Matrix (ASM) Technologies LLC to provide external, independent evaluation of the pilot and recommend the most suitable programme for National IT training deployment, the most suitable vendor for delivering the chosen programme and the best possible methodology to be adopted for the National implementation.

The training was held in school computer labs provided by the Ministry of Education with the delivery depending upon the student's level of IT literacy. The school labs were used for training after the regular school hours. These 200 civil employees have been certified Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) as part of this pilot. At this graduation ceremony there will be a raffle draw held for the students with prizes sponsored by Nawras, Oman Arab Bank, Muscat College, Majan College, Integrated Systems and OHI.