The Academy will be launched at the OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy on 16 June 2008, which is also APCICT’s second anniversary. Subsequently, APCICT will be organizing the Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders - Training of Trainers for National Training Institutes in the Republic of Korea from 16 to 28 June 2008 for over 40 trainers from 30 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
In an increasingly digital and inter-connected global environment, policy makers and many other government officials are indispensable in creating and sustaining the type of environment that fully utilizes the potential of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D). For policy makers, ICT4D is not only about developing the ICT industry/sector of the economy. In fact, it is primarily about using ICT to promote economic, social and political development.
Among the difficulties that governments face in formulating ICT policy is their unfamiliarity with the technologies that they are harnessing for national development. To address this issue, the United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (UN-APCICT) developed, through a multi-stakeholder consultative process involving policy makers, experts in ICT4D and educators, a training programme entitled, the Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders.
With a core curriculum of eight ICT4D modules, the Academy aims to equip government officials with the knowledge and skills they need to fully utilize the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for reaching out to remote communities, increasing access to information, improving delivery of services, providing healthcare for all, promoting lifelong learning, and ultimately, achieving national development goals and bridging the digital divide.
The Academy will be launched at the OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy on 16 June 2008, which is also APCICT’s second anniversary. Subsequently, APCICT will be organizing the Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders - Training of Trainers for National Training Institutes in the Republic of Korea from 16 to 28 June 2008 for over 40 trainers from 30 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
The training sessions will focus on the linkage between ICT applications and development, ICT policy-making processes, e-government applications, and ICT project management and funding. In addition, specific sessions will be held on instructional design to train participants on the appropriate teaching methodology for the Academy modules. There will also be sessions on how participants could customize the training content to best suit their local environments.
A number of national training institutes and regional development agencies from across the globe have already begun to proactively indicate their interest to partner with APCICT in localizing the Academy modules and are adapting the modules as part of their training curriculum for policy makers. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT are committed to incorporating the modules in their training programmes and will be participating in the Academy Training of Trainers for National Training Institutes Workshop.
Supporting the Academy is an online distance learning platform (the APCICT Virtual Academy or AVA) that is scheduled to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2008. On AVA, all course materials will be posted for free download and re-use, and for customization and localization if necessary. The sessions during the Academy Training of Trainers for National Training Institutes will be filmed and formatted for uploading on AVA. A CD-ROM version of AVA will be produced for those with no or limited Internet access.
