Graduation ceremony of first batch of ICDL CTP participants held at Dubai Men's College

The CTP program is an ECDL/ICDL certification program and was launched in the Gulf region by the ICDL GCC Foundation, the governing body of the ICDL program in the Gulf countries, to promote best practices in the provision of ICDL training.

During the ceremony, 78 CTP candidates from all over the GCC region received their graduation certificates. The candidates graduated were drawn from among the 160 attendees of the CTP sessions that were held all over the GCC, and had successfully completed all the CTP requirements. The remaining 82 candidates are still working on their evidence records that are required by the program.

The ICDL GCC Foundation had instituted the CTP program as a requirement for its network of over 750 training centres. All the ICDL accredited centres are required to have at least one trainer who is CTP certified, as part of an effort to promote best practices and to drive up the quality of ICDL training across the Gulf region.

"The CTP program was initially developed and launched by the ECDL Foundation to sustain the international standard and safeguard the integrity of the ICDL program around the world," said Jamil Ezzo, Director General of ICDL GCC Foundation. The ICDL program has been gaining wide success in the region and is being increasingly adopted by various organizations from the public and the private sectors and the key to our success is the consistency in delivering advanced IT literacy program. We firmly believe the level of knowledge acquired by candidates and the skills developed are in direct correlation to trainer competence and the quality of training imparted."

CTP training sessions were conducted by renowned experts who are regarded as the best in the business. The program is designed to provide trainers with an opportunity to develop their competence in training performance, developing lesson plans, and, course evaluation. CTP offers candidates a recognizable quality mark for ICDL training, and provides training organizations with an objective measure of trainers' competence. Qualified CTP candidates must be ICDL certified and technically competent in all 7 modules of the ICDL program. The candidate must also have considerable training or teaching experience in delivering ICDL/IT training.

"We are delighted with the success of the CTP program in the region, as we have received candidates from the various countries. The prestigious professional certification is considered a major achievement in the field of training provision which will equip the trainers with advanced training skills to spread best practices in ICDL training and further develop their own careers. We take this opportunity to congratulate the graduates and we also express our gratitude to Zayed University and Higher Colleges of Technology, and in particular, Dubai Men's College for their support to the CTP program," Ezzo added.

ICDL GCC Foundation has scheduled more CTP training sessions to be held in Dubai and Kuwait during June 2006. The Foundation is also planning to offer the program in Arabic language to reach all ICDL approved training centers in Saudi Arabia.