In order to bridge the wide gap between the digital skills of the Chinese workforce and the demand of the workplace, Dell Technology Group (Dell) and China Education Development Foundation (CEDF) launched the “Upskilling Future Workforce Under The Digital Economy” Project as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project in China in November 2020. This project is fully funded by Dell, and would be implemented by National Center for Educational Technology (NCET) and ICDL. Tens of thousands of Chinese vocational school teachers and students, as well as employees from Dell China supply chain factories, are expected to benefit from this project.
As a global leading technology company, Dell believes in the need of providing access of technology to the people, skilling and upskilling for both life and workplace, bridging the digital divide and benefit the entire society. Therefore, Dell released the Social Impact Plan for 2030 in 2019. The plan is committed to advancing health, education and economic development initiatives to deliver enduring results for 1 billion people by 2030 in the world, to ultimately create a positive, lasting impact on humankind and the planet.
China is one of the most important markets for Dell, not only for the massive users of Dell Technology in China, but also for the 200,000 supply chain factory workers working in China every day. Talent building is crucial in Dell China Strategy.
Select vocational school teachers and students, as well as Dell supply chain workers in China, would be provided with ICDL certification programmes in this project. ICDL is the internationally recognised digital skills standard, adopted by more than 100 countries’ government agencies, corporates, and academic institutes. ICDL has been officially recognised by NCET, a subsidiary of Chinese Ministry of Education in 2019. By introducing an international standard to China, using modular design curriculum, practical hands-on approach, robust assessment and certification, the project aims to uplift the digital skills of vocational school students and existing workforce to the international standard, matching the ever-growing need of the workplace.
50 schools from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan, and other provinces would be selected as project schools. Thousands of vocational school teachers and students would benefit from this project by taking ICDL programme. In the meantime, Dell would donate desktops and hardware devices to schools in less-developed regions for better implementation. NCET would organise a series of academic seminars and teacher training sessions from March to July 2021, to explore vocational schools’ localisation needs of the international digital skills standard implementation, as well as teaching method innovation.
This project in China is the first of a series of collaboration between Dell and ICDL Foundation globally. Both parties plan to launch similar initiatives in other countries in the near future.
ICDL – The Digital Skills Standard
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