partners

Attention: open in a new window. PDFPrint

The Project Partnership contains of five organisations from Lithuania, Latvia, Germany and silent partner from Switzerland.

     

    Association “Langas į ateitį” (LIA)


    Background and achievements
    LIA is a non-profit initiative launched in 2002 by private companies, such as leading banks, telecommunication and IT companies. Today the association embraces 13 private companies and the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania.
    The mission of LIA is to participate in the development of the information society, increase the accessibility of the Internet and e-services in Lithuania by providing computer literacy and Internet training to adults, establishing public Internet access points (PIAPs) and stimulating the growth of e-services countrywide.


    The target audience is digitally and geographically excluded residents, particularly living in rural regions, socially vulnerable, elderly and disabled people.
    LIA activities can be divided into three main fields:
    1) Access to Internet;
    2) ICT training;
    3) Promotion of safe Internet usage.


    The initiative is gaining a strong momentum because of effective cooperation with local and central government and local communities. LIA has become an initiator of the Public Internet Access Point (PIAP) network which is over 1000 PIAPs today. The network has been created integrating private, state and European Structural funds.


    Over 75000 Lithuanian citizens participated in ICT training projects implemented by LIA since 2003. All ICT training projects include material on safe Internet and e-services usage.


    A summary and results of the work

    Access to Internet
    In 2002 when LIA started its activities Internet penetration in Lithuania hardly reached 11%. One of the biggest needs of the population was Internet access. The association gave impulse to the beginning of PIAPs establishment in the country. By now the net of more than 1000 of PIAPs is spread all over Lithuania. It is possible to find the PIAP with 2 to 5 computers and free Internet access almost in every village of the country. The establishment of PIAPs took several years and could be divided into stages in which LIA performed different roles. In 2002 LIA established first 75 PIAPs funded by private business. In a year cooperating with the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania (MoI) 100 more PIAPs opened with state funding. In 2005 MoI initiated 300 another PIAP project in which LIA participated in steering committee of the project. In 2006 EU Structural funds project gave potential to 400 more PIAPs in rural areas (LIA together with partners was involved in project administration and publicity services). In this field of activities LIA closely collaborated with local government and this cooperation secured sustainability of PIAPs till now and is developed by other projects (the map of PIAPs network in 2008 attached).


    ICT training
    Next to the PIAPs‘ development LIA has realized the importance of training people how to use computers and Internet and in this way increase the number of PIAPs visitors as well as Internet users. Computer literacy is one of the key elements of the information society and one of the most important factors in reducing the digital divide which still exists in Lithuania. The main goal of the project implemented in 2003 – training on Internet basics. 20 000 adults from all over Lithuania were trained by skilled IT lecturers. The results of the project introduced that 80.06% of participants were women, 19.94% men. 86.16% of participants were from cities and their surroundings, others – from rural areas. Over 89% of all participants expressed their intention to keep improving their knowledge in Computer Literacy.


    The project “Computer Literacy Basics for a Lithuanian E–Citizen” was implemented in 2006 – 2008 countrywide and involved 50 400 inhabitants. The value of the project was 2,3 million EUR and it was funded by two sources - LIA founders and European Social fund. The training course content has been prepared following the computer literacy standard minimal computer literacy qualification program, approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, which corresponds to the last version of the ECDL program for citizens (e-Citizen)‏. The results of this nationwide project had shown that the largest group of LIA training was people aged 40-59 (53%), women - 77%, citizens of rural regions and small towns - 72%. Positive evaluation of courses by training participants was above 96%. Among 50400 project participants LIA had 400 people with special physical needs to which ICT knowledge is crucially in everyday life in reaching the important information and services. The project results had been measured by questionnaires and special survey at the end of the project. It is expected by the project implementers that the increasing number of internet users will extend the number of e-services, e-learning in particular, e-business and e-government services users. It is expected that 50400 educated persons would spread the acquired knowledge in their environment and contribute to relatively illiterate social groups understanding the benefit of this knowledge and encouraging the need for learning.


    Continuing the previous activities and achieving its goals LIA started to participate in Microsoft Unlimited Potential program in 2008. A new way of ICT trainings – distance learning – have been offered to the society. The 4 e-courses give possibility to improve knowledge in MS Excel, MS Power Point, Communication in the Internet (MSN Messenger, Skype) and especially popular program to parents – Online Safety for Kids. More than 7000 people have already participated in free distance learning courses registration, which can be found on the official site of LIA or http://ekursai.langasiateiti.lt.
    Recently LIA has started European Social fund funded project: Online Services for a Lithuanian E-citizen the goal of which is in a year and a half to train 16 000 adults on safe e-government and business services. Target groups: unemployed, disabled and citizens of rural areas.


    Promotion of safe Internet usage
    In all LIA trainings special attention is paid to the safe Internet usage. All training materials (teacher’s guides, textbooks, e-courses) include this very important topic.


    LIA participates actively in the activities of the EU funded project Safe Internet LT which is implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science and the Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania. In the frame of the project a month ago LIA prepared an e-course to the schools administration and social teachers which would help to improve their knowledge on safe computer and Internet usage at schools empowering and protecting children online.


    For the activities and input to the development of the Information society of Lithuania LIA has been awarded by H.E. President of the Republic of Lithuania, Information society development Committee by the Government of Republic of Lithuania, Knowledge Economy Forum, the Mayor of Vilnius City as well as the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, etc. Moreover, LIA is a winner of two European Commission Awards: in 2008 LIA was announced European e-inclusion award winner in the category of Digital Literacy and in 2010 a winner of RegioStars award for ICT applications for e-inclusion and successful implementation of EU structural finds project.

    Website URL : www.langasiateiti.lt



    The Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association (LIKTA)

    The Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association (LIKTA) is a leading ICT professional non-governmental association in Latvia, founded in 1998.

    One of the principal objectives of LIKTA is to promote the development of Information Society and e-skills in Latvia. LIKTA is running a 31 telecentre network across Latvia and has trained over 89 000 people and 580 trainers since 2005.

    LIKTA has significant experience in vocational training (e-skills and employability). LIKTA has developed an innovative 12 hrs. training programme for basic information society skills and comprehensive 160 hrs. vocational programme in ICT skills, as well as other training programmes specialized for different target groups. In 2008 LIKTA has developed training materials “Digital skills for SME`s” (more than 1500 trained) and “Virtual guide for families “, in 2009: "Digital skills for  NGO’s" and more than 10 on-line materials for NGO’s, as well as IT barometer - on-line tool to measure ICT competence. The standardised training co-ordination and logistics procedures, certification and motivation schemes are developed also. LIKTA is ECDL licensee holder in Latvia.

    Website URL : www.likta.lv

     

    Public institution Informacinių technologijų institutas (ITI)


    ITI (established in 1997) can be described as an organization which creates temporary working groups for projects to design IS in a professional manner. ITI has experience in corporative information systems design. From year 2000 ITI started with activities in ECDL (European Computer Driving License) Programme implementation in Lithuania and now is the official ECDL Foundation Sublicensee for Lithuania and Belarus. Currently the development and dissemination of ECDL related activities are the major ITI targets. ITI has developed the automated multilingual ECDL Test System which was approved by the ECDL Foundation. Currently ITI is involved in development of localized syllabus and automated evaluation systems for ECDL, e-Citizen, ECDL CAD and e-Guardian in Lithuanian, Russian, and English languages.

    Website URL : www.ecdl.lt

     


    Bremen University


    The Center for Computing and Communication Technologies – TZI was founded 1995 as a research institute of the Universität Bremen.  Main objectives are the research and development of innovative information – and communication technologies and their transfer into products and services. TZI supports the development of concerted activities Mobile Solutions, Interaction and Education, Software Quality and Information Security, Adaptive Communication. As the competence center for information- and communication technologies in the state of Bremen, the TZI contributes to development of Bremen towards a high tech location.
    Currently the TZI occupies about 160 scientists that are researching in over 100 national and international projects.

    Website URL : www.uni-bremen.de

     

    Association APTES

    The main goal of APTES is to promote trans-disciplinary activities as much as social entrepreneurial spirit, linking in the same structure:
    •    People in situation of professional insertion (first job, re-insertion, reorientation of career),
    •    Socially innovating projects holders,
    •    Partnerships with experts from other social enterprises,
    •    Experts in digital culture and training tools.

    APTES tools and resources to facilitate professional insertion:
    1)    Tools for assessment of transversal skills
    2)    Methodologies and guidelines for web2 environment uses in professional situations
    3)    Handbooks and guides on work planning and capacity building with result orientated project management to facilitate social and professional insertion.
    4)    Distant learning training web platform for key skills in Internet communication (digital literacy and digital fluency), collaborative platforms and web publication.
    5)    Hosting platform for personal website to insert unemployed persons, including courses scenarios for valorisation of skills and behaviors. This platform allows various institutions and projects to make pilot experiences of hosting their personal website aiming in valorizing people's competences within a social and professional insertion process
    6)    Modelisation process and the deployment in Switzerland which still is to be completed, mainly through pedagogical scenarios and measures inspired by our European neighbors
    7)    ePortfolio development for employability

    APTES can contribute, 100% with it's own Swiss funds to the following:
    1)    Share our tools and expertise for the e-guardian project empowerment on work packages.
    2)    Translation of syllabus into French if you are interested, and translation of our ePortfolio tools into English which could be a good complementary tool for digital literacy within the eGuardian training programme.
    3)    Dissemination plan in European organizations (universities, SME clusters, trainers networks) together with Ynternet.org which is providing it's listing of contacts and the hosting of a yearly international conference on digital culture (next in September 2011, about 9-10 months after project starts). See example here : http://www.forumeculture.net/
    4)    Invitation of a delegate of each partner in Switzerland, on our own costs (plane, hosting and food), in September 2011 or when you think it can be relevant, to promote the project.


    Website URL: http://www.zen3.net/aptes/contact-aptes