Youth Association for Habitat, UNDP and Turkey Vodafone Foundation developed the Project called “Bridging the Digital Divide: Empowerment of Youth for E-Transformation of Turkey". This Project has set off with the motto: Target: 1.000.000.

The Bridging Digital Divide Project aims at increasing information technologies utilization capabilities of 1.000.000 young people through the European Computer Driving License training (ECDL) to be provided over the Internet, and envisages that youth become effective, computer literate individuals .

To this end, the Project aims to increase the digital inclusion of Turkish youth through enhancing their ICT skills, and also fulfill the need for ICT skilled employees in Turkey. The project has a special emphasis on the digital inclusion of disadvantaged young people including young women.

The online ECDL training is composed of a 70 hours training programme. The system enables a participant to frame his/her individual training plan and to conclude the training package within 3 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 obtain a participation certificate. The curriculum, provided at www.bilgitoplumu.net , will cover new training tools to become an e-library for Turkish youth. MS moduls on Internet Safety and Security and Digital Life are already inserted into the system.

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

Upon reaching 1.000.000 young people who receive training over the Internet, the Bridging Digital Divide Project will be the biggest Information and Communication Technologies literacy Project ever implemented in Turkey.

The visibility of the Project will be enhanced through the use of sms and mms. The training curriculum will be accessible through mobile phones in time.