A 10-year-old Australian schoolgirl has been hailed by The Australian Computer Society as the youngest person in the world to be accredited with an International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL).
Nicole Lim, a year five student at Queenwood School for Girls, in Sydney, will be honoured by the ACS - which holds the rights for ICDL - in a special ceremony at her school on December 4 where the president of the ACS, John Ridge will present Lim with her ICDL award.
Principal of Queenwood's junior school, Elizabeth Neil, said other girls in the school are following Lim's example and taking up the ICDL challenge.
"We were the first school in Sydney accredited as an ICDL test centre site. We were keen for our teachers to gain their ICDL qualification and pass their knowledge to the students," Neil said.
More than 1.7 million people in some 55 countries are participating in the Computer Driving Licence program and working to achieve their Computer Driving Licence - an internationally recognised qualification in core IT skills, designed for adults.
"Given the ICDL has only been running in Australia for two years, we are very proud and excited that the youngest-ever person to gain the ICDL is Australian. This is a significant achievement for a 10-year-old. It reflects the benefits in obtaining IT literacy from an early age and shows how advanced Australia is in the take-up of technology," said Trudy Turnbull, ICDL business development manager, ACS.
The ICDL consists of seven modules: basic concepts of IT, using the computer and managing files, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentations and information and communication.
The licence is awarded once a test in each of the seven modules has been passed and confirms the holder has necessary computer skills. Around 1000 people in Australia have been accredited with the ICDL, and 20,000 are currently participating in the program.