NZCS Supports Challenge to New Zealand Business

NZCS Supports Challenge to New Zealand Business

PRESS RELEASE – NZ Computer Society Inc. (NZCS)

11 September 2009

For Immediate Release

The New Zealand Computer Society Inc (NZCS) today welcomed the release of a new book linking New Zealand’s poor productivity with lack of core computing skills and challenging New Zealand to do something about it.

The book, written by experienced trainer Pam Martin who has significant experience improving the productivity of New Zealand organisations, is entitled “Beneath the Knowledge Wave” and was released at the Small Business Summit today.

The book also points to international research showing that the implementation of a programme such as the International Computing Drivers License (ICDL) to lift core computing skills can increase productivity massively, adding up to 4 weeks of productive time per year for every employee across an organisation.

In the book Martin recounts many experiences and anecdotes to draw the conclusion that a fundamental reason for New Zealand’s disappointing business productivity statistics is a lack of focus on core computing skills, and asks the question “Is our productivity leaking out through the holes in our computer skills?”

NZCS Digital Literacy Division head Rebecca Boyce said today she was very happy to see the link between core computing skills and New Zealand’s productivity drawn so clearly in the book. “Pam has done an outstanding job of presenting anecdotal evidence and drawing the only conclusion possible – that productivity is intrinsically linked to computing skills”.

“The book also makes the strong point that computing skills are often self-taught, leaving huge gaps in knowledge”, Boyce said. “We don’t know what we don’t know, and this results in big, often unbeknown problems for many of those thought to be computer literate”.

NZCS brought the International Computing Drivers License (ICDL) to New Zealand several years ago in a bid to improve the digital literacy, and hence productivity, of New Zealanders. ICDL is the internationally recognised core computing standard used in around 150 countries around the world, and has been used to lift the digital literacy and core computing skills of over 9 million people worldwide.

“As an example of the international evidence of the huge link between computing skills and productivity, the UK National Health Service, with 1.2 million employees, found that implementing ICDL raised productivity by 38 minutes per person, per day”, Boyce said. “That’s massive. That’s the equivalent of an extra 4 weeks per year, per employee”.

The Society is about to launch a significant campaign to raise awareness of the link between productivity and computer skills, joining the challenge to see New Zealand get serious about tackling productivity.
 
ENDS