Swiss ECDL -
Managing effective growth in multilingual certifications    

Certification sponsors running national ECDL programs have stringent requirements on quality, security and efficiency. Being a multi-lingual country, Switzerland has the additional challenge of needing to manage testing and administration in multiple local languages. ECDL Switzerland AG chose the Enlight online testing and certification solution to handle the challenges and the growth of the program.

The Swiss ECDL programme strong growth

	"High quality tests and a certification solution that does not compromise with security are essential for us". Konrad Lang, CEO ECDL Switzerland AG

ECDL Switzerland AG is licensed by ECDL Foundation to run the ECDL programme in Switzerland on the behalf of the national Swiss Informaticians Society. The ECDL certification is growing rapidly in Switzerland both in terms of number of test centres and number of candidates participating in the program. The growth combined with the specific multi-lingual requirements represent a major challenge for ECDL Switzerland AG.

The challenge - growth in a multi-lingual territory

An international certification like the ECDL operates with strict attention to test quality and security in the certification process. As certification volumes increase it becomes essential to have efficient tools that support the process. The local ECDL operator needs to have full control of the certification program in the territory. The test centres need to get simple access to tests and need to be able to easily administer tests and test results. In Switzerland the tests also need to be available in several local languages.

The solution Enlights online solution for ECDL

	Challenges and requirements Multilingual test and admin Strong growth Combine manual & online Effective administration Use in low bandwidth regions Solution Online ECDL testing Online test center admin Online Certification Management Pre-diagnostic testing Result Test centeres saved time and cost in test marking and admin Central saving of time and cost in administration Increased security and quality Ability to manage additional territories

ECDL Switzerland AG chose Enlight’s online ECDL solution for testing and certification management. Enlight provides ECDL certification tests and diagnostic tests in German, French, Italian, English and Albanian. All the test centres that wish to use the online solution get access to the online tests and the test centre management tools. The online solution also makes it possible to administrate the virtual ECDL Skills Card. The test centres that choose to continue working with manual tests are able to register test results in the Enlight Certification Manager application so that all test results from all of Switzerland are stored in the same central database, instantly available for ECDL Switzerland AG.

Enlight’s solution is used in the whole training process leading to ECDL certification, with test centres have access to diagnostic tests for pre- and post assessment in addition to accessing the certification tests.

Result – Improved operation of the ECDL certification

Using the online testing and certification solution ECDL Switzerland AG has been able to more than double the number of candidates without increasing administrative resources. The online solution has gained high popularity among the Swiss test centres for reducing their work in test marking and results reporting, as well as among ECDL candidates who now get instant test results instead of having to wait for manual marking.

Further, ECDL Switzerland has been able to leverage the exiting online testing and certification solution to use in new ECDL territories such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon and the Province of Kosovo, where bandwidth at times is restricted.