ECDL / ICDL Licensees in Greece and South Africa passed a milestone recently when they awarded their 100,000th Skills Card to ECDL Candidates.

Greece made its award to the secretary general of the Ministry of Employment & Social Welfare, Dr Spyros Vliamos, during the 1st ECDL Network National Congress to celebrate four years of ECDL in Greece. The award was made in recognition of the ministry's contribution to the adoption of ECDL in Greece, through an EU-funded IT training and certification programme for the unemployed in 2003. "Certification of knowledge and skills in all fields will help us develop into a better and more efficient economy in the future," said Dr Vliamos, accepting the Skills Card.

The two-day event in Greece was attended by more than 500 ECDL partners representing over 350 Test Centres from across the country. Addressing the conference, the president & CEO of ECDL Hellas, A. Byron Nicolaides, praised the 1.2 percent penetration level of the ECDL programme in Greece. Indeed, in some areas of the country, the penetration level exceeds 4 percent.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, the ICDL Foundation celebrated the awarding of its 100,000th Skills Log Book. Annette Thwaits of ICDL SA presented the award to South African entrepreneur and cosmonaut Mark Shuttleworth at a ceremony to mark the launch of a dedicated Open Source Centre (OSC) in Limpopo.

Shuttleworth became a multi-millionaire when he sold his security software to a rival company, and he is now spending some of his money on promoting the use of Open Source software and education. Shuttleworth was also the first African to travel into space.

The centre, which forms part of the Mogalakwena HP i-community sustainable development project, offers members of the community training in the use of Open Source software, specifically Open Office. Participants can work towards obtaining the ICDL using Open Office on Linux. The centre is the first in South Africa to offer the ICDL in Open Office.

Picture shows Byron Nicolaides (left), CEO of ECDL Hellas, and David Carpenter (right), CEO of ECDL-F, presenting the Skills Card to Dr Spyros Vliamos (centre), secretary general of the Ministry of Employment & Social Welfare in Greece