As our mission states, the fundamentals of education have changed, and in this high-tech world, digital literacy has become a requirement. In our high school programs, our goal is to help train students in the skills needed for the 21st century job market. At Hinkley High School in Aurora, students are currently in the process of training to earn the Internet and Computing Core Certification (IC3.)
The IC3 Certification was created by the testing company Certiport to “to address the need for a globally recognized and accepted standard of basic computing knowledge to be considered fundamental to academic learning and a minimum requirement for employment in a typical office setting.” As Certiport states: “Every job and career, every field of study, and even our social and personal lives are increasingly impacted by technology.”
“Walking into any employer, and having a tech certification such as the IC3 will really put our students ahead of the pack, especially since they earned it before even graduating from high school,” states Steve Kessler, KidsTek’s instructor at Hinkley High School.
The IC3 Certification comprises three individual exams: “Computing Fundamentals,” “Key Applications,” and “Living Online.”
The majority of the class has already passed the “Computing Fundamentals” exam, and are on track to pass the second and third exams by the end of January. Therefore, we expect the majority of the students in our Hinkley program to be IC3 certified by the end of the month!
