Name of Project: Bridging Digital Divide: Empowerment of Youth for the e-Transformation of Turkey

Budget: 750,000 USD

Timeline: June 2007 - May 2010

What is the situation?

Within the scope of the Local Agenda 21 Project, local youth platforms have been established in seventy three cities throughout the country. These platforms raise awareness on youth related issues, encourage youth participation in decision-making and create an inclusive platform for people of different backgrounds to come together and share common values. Youth Association for Habitat facilitates the youth component of the LA-21 Programme as well as the Local Agenda 21 National Youth Parliament Network.

About sixty percent of Turkey’s population is in the 0-30 age bracket. Thirty five percent of Turkey’s present 71.7 million people are in the 15 to 29 age group. This demographic profile combined with information on employability and income suggests that Turkey’s youth, especially those in the country’s less developed regions, do not enjoy the cultural and intellectual opportunities available to their peers in other countries. Platforms for youth empowerment, such as those supported under Turkey’s LA-21, are therefore of critical importance in terms of drawing attention and local action to the problems of youth.Despite Turkey’s young population, computer and Internet usage is still not as prevalent as in the developed world.

What is our mission?

Building on the "Empowerment of Youth through Improved e-Governance in Turkey" Project that aims to train young people on ICTs trough peer education model, “Bridging the Digital Divide: Empowerment of Youth for the E-Transformation of Turkey” Project will multiply the ICT literate young people in Turkey to 1.000.000 through European Computer Driving License (ECDL) e-learning modules.

How are we doing this?

ECDL is a world widely known and accepted certificate that ensures an information society through ICT literates with standardized computer knowledge. Empowering young people in Turkey with MS Office trainings that will facilitate their ECDL certification will increase the ICT capacities of Turkish people coping with the people in developed countries.

Online MS Office trainings will include Microsoft Office XP, Word XP, Excel XP, PowerPoint XP and Outlook XP training packages. This e-learning system includes trainings for beginners, intermediaries and advanced users.

The ECDL e-learning mechanism of this Project will be supported by the peer to peer ICT training model of the Empowerment of Youth for the E-Transformation of Turkey Project to reach out young people with insufficient knowledge of computer usage.

The online ECDL training is composed of a 100 hours training programme.  The system enables a participant to frame his/her individual training plan and to conclude the training package within 2,5 months.  As the young participant concludes the training package, s/he will be required to pass an online examination.  If s/he succeeds, s/he will be certified by Microsoft and IDEA.  The system will be open for another 2,5 months for those who do not succeed for the first trial.

With the Learning Management System (LMS), online trainings of the young participants will be followed closely. LMS will report statistics for the whole participants of the Project as well as it will report the amount of the usage of the system and the success of individual participants.

How will this benefit Turkey?

The primary direct beneficiaries of the project will be socio-economically young people in Turkey below 30 years of age.  This Project aims to empower 1.000.000 young people on ICTs within three years.

By the end of the first year of the project, the Project targets to reach 50 thousand young people through the Local Agenda 21 youth platforms and another 50 thousand high school students through the Ministry of Education.

For the second and third year of the project, this Project will be the biggest ICT Literacy project in the country as the number of trained young people will be multiplied reaching out 1.000.000 by the end of 2009. 

The Project will not only increase the digital inclusion of 1.000.000 Turkish youth via increasing their ICT capacities through online ECDL training , but it will also fulfill the need for ICT skilled employees in Turkey. 

Who are our partners?

Vodafone Turkey Foundation

Vodafone Group Foundation is committed to establishing corporate foundations in countries where it operates as a result of its social investment policy. Vodafone has a unique footprint of 23 foundations and social investment programs. Through its foundations, Vodafone makes grants to charity, responding to needs both globally and locally. Thereby, in Turkey, Vodafone Turkey Foundation has been established with the aim of protecting society and environment, increasing and sustaining the well being of society and providing e-transformation of Turkey

Youth Association for Habitat

Youth Association for Habitat, serving as the secretariat of Youth for Habitat International Network since 1997, aims at increasing youth awareness for sustainable development and livable environment, youth participation in decision making; to enable youth to establish partnerships with the governments, local authorities and the private sector; to follow up and increase the participation of youth in the international youth related events of the United Nations and the European Union; to improve networking among youth groups and to develop training programs.

Who are our supporters?

Microsoft

Microsoft Turkey has established a partnership with Youth for Habitat Association and UNDP Turkey for increasing socio-economical capabliities of youth in our country with information technologies withing framework of "E-Transition of Turkey" program. Within the framework of Empowerment of Youth for Improved e-Governance in Turkey project, corporations have reached a consensus on supporting further increasing IT capabilities of many more young people with online learning system to be activated together with E-Transformation of Turkey Project. Microsoft supports software licenses and Unlimited Potential PC literacy learning packages and Dialogical: Empowerment of Youth for E-Transformation of Turkey Project activities.

www.microsoft.com/turkiye/

Local Agenda 21 National Youth Parliament

Local Agenda 21 (LA-21) National Program of Turkey is an important local democratization project of Turkey, implemented and coordinated by United Nations Development Program and the Regional Section for International Union of Local Authorities East Mediterranean and Middle East (IULA-EMME) since 1997. The over all objective of the program is to strengthen local governance by ensuring that civil society participates in decision-making in planning and influences local investments to meet priorities. The program, currently encompassing over sixty cities, reflects a decentralized and enabling approach, based upon networking and collaboration among equal partners. The primary decision-making and implementation mechanisms are the local stakeholders organized mainly in the form of city councils supported by working groups, women and youth councils, and platforms of children, elderly and disabled. Within the scope of the Local Agenda 21 Project, local youth platforms have been established in 73 cities throughout the country. These platforms raise awareness on youth related issues, encourage youth participation in decision-making and create an inclusive platform for people of different backgrounds to come together and share common values.

www.ulusalgenclikparlamentosu.com