Can I really use a computer well?

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Africonnect, the company I work for, has recently become Zambia's first officially approved partner for the ICDL.

ICDL, which stands for International Computer Driver License, is a worldwide standard certification programme for end user computing. It covers essential IT concepts, file managements, word processing, spreadsheets, desktop database applications, presentation software and the internet. It is an ideal programmme for those who want learn the basics of computer use or to assess the efficiency with computers.

I know it may sound ridiculous to you, especially that you're reading this off the web but if you think about it, knowing how to swing an axe properly would save you time an energy in the task of cutting wood. It is for similar reasons that the ICDL has become a standard measure for good computer use in some corporations and learning institutions on the continent.

Next week, I will start preparing for the 7 tests I need to take to obtain certification. Two of my colleagues at work have been taking the tests and completed their certification process this morning. One of them scoring in a 100% in two of the modules.

There are a lot of things that can be done a lot more easily even in Microsoft Word that a lot of people do not know. For example, most people I encounter do not know that defining the headings in your document will give you a correctly (and updatable) table of contents or that spliting your document into sections will let you set the orientation of specific pages in the document so that you can fit in those tables and diagrams in the appropriate places.

I must sound pretty arrogant mentioning these things but the truth is even though I do could be considered an advanced computer user I never took the schooling for it. Most of you know that that the driver's who have never been to driving school are often the cause of risks we encounter on the road. Similarly, I hope I'll unlearn some long winding bad habits in the way I use my office software and maybe I'll blog more often after this.

So here we go ... I'll let you know how I fair.

If you want to know more abot the ICDL program visit http://www.icdl.org.zm

PS. I'm thinking of joining the local ToastMasters chapter - I'm going to learn to speak again!