Almost all NHS staff happy with ECDL

A new British Computer Society survey has found extremely high levels of satisfaction among NHS staff with the European Computer Driving Licence qualification.

The BCS survey found that 96% of NHS employees who had taken the ECDL qualification expressed satisfaction with the organisation of the course and the testing criteria. Some 80% of respondents rated the qualification as very worthwhile and a further 18% scored it as quite worthwhile.

The ECDL provides the foundations in use of computers, offering staff vital training in is available throughout the country in over 2,500 test centres with seven modules within the syllabus designed to cover the key concepts of computing, its practical applications and their use in the workplace and society in general.

In a seperate May 2004 survey the NHS Information Authority found that 100% of users who described their skills as ‘basic’ or ‘very basic’ reported they felt much more confident with computers after taking the ECDL  course. Some 48% of those users said that it saved them over half an hour per day.

Nurses had been among the least positive towards IT in the NHS; for instance, only 35% supported electronic patient record-keeping. After the ECDL, however, the approval rating shot up to 79%. It is estimated that improved IT skills have saved each nurse an average of 145 hours per year.

BCS director of qualifications Pete Bayley said of the latest survey results. “The fact that NHS employees have given ECDL their seal of approval exemplifies our commitment to raising IT standards."

As well as the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Office, HSBC, Sainsbury’s and Cadbury’s have all incorporated the international ECDL qualification into their IT training.