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Confirm your IT skills and competencies under the European IT Certification framework from anywhere in the world fully online.

EITCA Academy

Digital skills attestation standard by the European IT Certification Institute aiming to support Digital Society development

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EITCA Academy, the European Information Technologies Certification Academy is an international IT competencies certification programme based on the European IT Certification (EITC) standard developed and disseminated since 2008 by the European Information Technologies Certification Institute in Brussels (EITCI Institute, certification body).

EITCA Academy is implemented fully online to diminish physical and economical barriers in access to formal attestation of digital skills. Both learning and examination methodologies incorporate digitally assisted remote form. The EITCA Academy comprises of the EITC and EITCA Certification programmes. It is available as an EU based framework for individuals' professional IT competencies formal attestation, acknowledged internationally and thus providing IT skills recognition, regardless of the nationality upon the certification documents digitally issued and verifiable by third parties with the EITCI Institute. More information on the EITC/EITCA Certification governing body can be found on the relevant EITCI Institute pages.

EITCA Academy constitutes international IT competencies certification framework, which on the level of its advancement is comparable in terms of complexity and curriculums' contents to combination of postgraduate higher education with a professional industry training. It is available in the EU and abroad exclusively within distant learning and distant examination form, thus enabling both the EU and non-EU citizens to access easily formal confirmation of their professional IT competencies and skills from Brussels with the attestation standard based on the European IT Certification framework without the neccessity of physical presence and with only a fraction of costs related to stationary EU based or international digital skills certification programmes. The dissemination of the programme is driven and supported primarily by the EITCI Institute in its mission for promoting digital literacy, life long learning, digitally enabled adaptivity and preventing digital exclusion, as well as pursuing establishment of a high quality reference level for the certified IT skills in the Europe Union, therefore implementing guidelines of the European Commission policies as set out in the Digital Agenda for Europe upon the Europe 2020 strategy (within the promoting digital literacy, skills and inclusion pillar of the EC DAE).

The EITCA Academy is part of the European IT Certification framework under which there are two types of certification programmes available:

  1. Individual EITC programmes of 15 hours curriculum, such as e.g. EITC/IS/WSA Windows Server Administration, etc.
  2. EITCA Academy programmes that group several (usually 12) EITC programmes in a specialized domain of IT applications. For example EITCA/IS IT Security Academy (180 hours curriculum within 12 relevant EITC programmes focusing on cybersecurity), EITCA/WD Web Development Academy, EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence Academy or EITCA/CG Computer Graphics Academy (also grouping relevant EITC programmes focusing on corresponding domains of digital skills).

There are no prerequisites for enrolment in any of the European IT Certification programmes (either EITC or EITCA Academy programmes).

Each EITCA Academy programme with all its constituent European IT Certification (EITC) programmes' curricula are fully self-contained. There is no need to have any prior knowledge to undertake and complete any of these certification programmes, as their curricula and referenced video and textual didactic materials cover relevant topics in full and from the very beginning. All participants may study in-detail the curricula covering comprehensive video didactic materials available fully asynchronously (allowing participants to define their learning schedule freely) and will find therein answers to all of the examination questions.

Each of EITCA Academy constituent EITC programmes ends with a remote online examination, passing of which conditions granting of the corresponding EITC Certificate. The examinations can be retaken without limits in number of retakes and without any additional fees charged. All European IT Certification examinations are remote and in a digital form of multichoice questions. There are no oral examinations involved. EITC Certificates can be issued only after participants achieve a minimum level of 60% at corresponding examination approaches, and only after successfully passing all EITCA Academy constituent EITC examinations, participants are entitled to issuance of the final EITCA Academy Certification. As mentioned there are however no limits in examinations retakes (at no additional charges) as well as no time limits to finish the programme, so participants can take their time as well as unlimited examination approaches, to properly prepare and successfully pass their corresponding examinations. After the participant passes a single EITC examination he/she will be granted with a corresponding EITC Certificate, and after obtaining all EITCA Academy constituent EITC Certificates the participant will also be issued the EITCA Academy Certificate which will formally attest professional and comprehensive specialization in the corresponding digital field. All European IT Certifications do not have validity date and hence do not require any recertification procedure.

EITCA/KC IT Key Competencies Certificate
EITCA/KC

EITCA/CG Computer Graphics Certificate

EITCA/CG

EITCA/BI Business Information Certificate

EITCA/BI

EITCA/IS Information Security Certificate

EITCA/IS

Sample EITC Certificate

EITC

 

The EITCA Academy Certificate is a comprehensive in terms of complexity of skills confirmed European IT Certification (EITC) based standard for internationally recognized formal confirmation of specialization in a particular field of applied IT. EITCA Certificates allows its participants worldwide to acquire a robust confirmation of their multiple competencies constituting specialization in a given digital field by grouping relevant EITC Certifications, all issued in Brussels within distant learning and fully remote examination access. All the certification procedures are implemented remotely and online on the basis of standardization and accreditiation of the certification governing body, the European Information Technologies Certification Institute (EITCI) in Brussels. Both EITC and EITCA Academy certificates are fully integrated within the EITCI disseminated <a href="/it-id/">IT ID eCV</a> digital competencies and skills modern presentation framework.

According to the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE, European Commission Statement for the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, COM (2010) 245, Brussels, August 2010) digital competencies are now the basis for the development of Information Society (IS) in the knowledge based economy (KBE) worldwide. According to the recent Eurostat surveys, 30% of the EU citizens (150 millions of Europeans) and over 90% of the whole worldwide population do not posess sufficient IT competencies, making it difficult for them to function in a modern globalized labor market. This constitutes a barrier to both pofessional and personal development, while still IT competencies held by the remaining part of the European Union citizens are insufficiently targeted and are subject to fast obsolescence. Despite many efforts in policy making and public and private driven counter actions to bridge the gap between digital skills proliferation and the market and social needs, the situation is not improcing significantly.

Due to the fact that nowadays an ability to use Information Technologies is extremely important and advantageous for self-development in both personal and professional ways, the so-called digital Key Competencies are fundamental for the knowledge-based economy (European Parliament and Council Recommendation on December 18th 2006 on key competences for lifelong-learning process, 2006/962/EC). The main message of the DAE, constituting basis of the new strategy for further development of the European Union ("Europe 2020 - Innovative Union"), is the need to intensify sustained education of the European citizens in the field of Information Technology (leading to increase in the percent of population being educated in this field, while also improving the quality of education in the context of pan-European and international reaching certification programmes, using effective digital methods (e-learning in particular), as well as comprising financial support of the European Union - upon the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) in programmes co-funding formally certified education. EITCI Institute developing and disseminating EITC / EITCA Certification standards seeks to support reaching of the goals set out in the public policies for a further growth of the EU.

A pan-European standard promoted towards its international recognition and programmed with a possible comprehensiveness comparable to formal academic postgraduate level education, while practically oriented to constitute applicable digital competencies attestation in the field of Information Technologies is thus seeked for as important mean in supporting bridging of the digital skills gap in the EU. Such a standard was initiated in the form of the European IT Certification (EITC) in 2008 and was continously developed and disseminated by the European Information Technologies Certification Institute EITCI throughout recent years. This standard is a basis for definition of the European IT Certification Academy, jointly providing two certification programmes:

  • EITC Certification (the European Information Technologies Certification) - including specialized certification programmes narrowly defined in certain skills and applications (programme referenced comprehensiveness of each EITC programme converges to circa 15 hours),
  • EITCA Certification (the European Information Technologies Certification Academy) - including domain-specific specialization competence programmes, grouping together series of usually several relevant EITC Certifications (programme referenced comprehensiveness between 150 and 180 hours).

The EITC and EITCA Certification programmes were launched one after the other correspondingly in 2008, and since that date these programmes have emerged as recognized digital skills certification frameworks along with their continous developed and update as well as dissemination by the European Information Technologies Certification Institute in Brussels. EITCI Institute has since been issuing EITC and EITCA certificates in over 40 countries covering specialized areas of applied computer science, design, cyber security and general digital skills thus promoting digital literacy and IT professionalism and countering digital exclusion.

IT competencies certification constitutes a formal way of confirming individual's competencies in specific areas of knowledge and skills related to applied computer science and Information Technologies. The EITC/EITCA Certificates are attestment documents supporting other formal ways of confirming knowledge, skills and competencies acquired within vocational and academic education (including certificates or diplomas of the universities and schools). In this regard the EITC and EITCA Academy Certification schemes are especially important in facilitating the policies towards introducing digital skills dissemination between not only IT professionals and computer engineers but among all people who are professionally active in other domains, sometimes far separated from IT.

EITCA Academy programme, conducted under the governance of the European Information Technologies Certification Institute in Brussels, allows - after successful completion of on-line examination procedure - to obtain the EITCA Academy Certificates digitally issued in Brussels, along with the detailed supplements and all substituent EITC Certifications. The certification itself is possible both under a complete EITCA Academy programme in the chosen field of specialization (examinations within all EITC Certifications included in the Academy programme resulting in complete EITCA Academy Certificate, the diploma supplement along with all relevant EITC certificates), as well as within more narrowly defined individual EITC Certifications (single exam and single EITC Certificate within each respective EITC programme).

In terms of comprehensiveness, as indicated above, the EITCA Academy Certification programme (equivalent to 150-180 hours of stationary classes, or standard 2 university semesters of postgraduate education) may be compared to a specialized postgraduate studies, yet with its practical orientation and the advantages of the internationally disseminated EU based Certification standard it may prove for some to be a better choice.

An important feature of the EITC/EITCA certification programmes is a possibility to complete during a longer conduct only individual EITC programmes from the topical group forming the respective EITCA Academy (single specialized EITC Certifications with an average didactic content of 15 hours) and thus Certificate after Certificate improve your formal skills attestment. The EITC/EITCA competence certification programmes include content designed in a bottom-up approach so that no prior IT knowledge is required to complete them, despite their advanced and specialized nature as well as adherence to high quality on the skills attesting. This enables even most specialized EITC/EITCA programmes to be successfully completed step-by-step by the individuals without prior IT expertise, while being also relevant for IT professionals and experts in the corresponding domains.

The EITCA Academy and EITC Certification procedures result not only with issuance of properly secured digital certificates (in case of the EITCA Academy accompanied by the detailed Certification supplements and all the relevant substituent EITC Certificates, and in the case of the EITC Certificates containing detailed description within the Certifacate itself), but also with provision of relevant electronic validation services. The digital EITC/EITCA Certifications should be understood as their unique ID numbers, that upon entering with the properly secured data to the EITCI Institute Certification validation system allow for online verification of the Certifications along with details of programme scope completed by the Certification holder, as well as downloading or printing of the adequate confirmations and supplements. The EITC Certifications (obtained individually or as a part of the EITCA Academy Certification) are designed with ID carrying QR codes that enable automatic machine recognition and verification by a phone camera based QR scanning applications.

The examination and certification procedure aimed at formal confirmation of acquisition of knowledge and skills in specific areas of Information Technologies, is carried out by EITCI Institute according to the published terms & conditions, in a fully remote form via special online examination system integrated within the e-learning platform.

All EITCI issued European IT Certifications including the EITC and EITCA Academy Certifications are available fully online at the enrolment fees, as specified in the EITC/EITCA Certifications catalogue.

You can either participate in a chosen EITCA Academy programme(s) or in a chosen EITC programme(s).

EITCA Academy programme consists of several EITC programmes (normally 10 to 12), each of standard 15 hours curriculum comprehensiveness reference  (it means that the scope of a single EITC programme corresponds to circa 15 hours of stationary didactics and learning). Therefore a given EITCA Academy programme corresponds to 150-180 hours of curriculum comprehensiveness, and as such it constitutes a professional, joint, thematic and consistent IT competencies attestment in a specific area of IT specialization offering comprehensiveness comparable to a postgraduate level higher education programme.

In short EITCA Academy groups relevant EITC certification programmes in a specific discipline (e.g. in the domains of Information Security, Business IT or Computer Graphics). To obtain a joint EITCA Academy Certification one must undertake and succesfully pass all consisting EITC examinations (and thus is entitled to a joint EITCA Academy Certificate and all the relevant EITC Certificates included in the programme).

One can also choose to pursue only individual EITC Certification(s) thus obtainining a narrowly defined formal confirmation of relevant skills, that address a well defined and coherent topic, technology or software application (e.g. topics such as cryptography fundamentals, object programming, HTML, raster graphics, 3d modelling, etc.).

Everyone interested in doing so can participate in the EITCA Academy and EITC Certification programmes. The programme is available on-line and there are no limitations to home countries or nationalities of the individuals that can undertake it. The only condition is Internet access for distant learning and remote examination required for the certification procedures and the certifications issuance in Brussels, EU.

To start, you need to register an account in the EITCA Academy. The registration of an account is free. With the account you gain access to demonstrations and free resources that will allow you to better choose an adequate for yourself EITCA Academy or EITC Certification(s).

To enroll for the EITCA Academy or the EITC certification programme(s) of your choice, you need to have a registered account and make an order of your selected EITCA Academy or EITC programme(s). You can add your chosed programmes to your order and after completing selection you will be able to pay the fee finalizing formalities. Then after your order is processed (which is done automatically by the system in matter of a few seconds) you will be granted online access to participation in your chosen programme(s) from your account.

As for the EITCA Academy Certifications there is a promoting 80% EITCI subsidy granted in a corresponding fee reduction (applicable to all interested individuals worldwide and related to the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition EITCI Institute's pledge to increase the scale of the EITC/EITCA Certification access dissemination and to diminish economic barriers). Applying the EITCI subsidy by a 5-letter digital code enabling it results with the EITCA Academy fee effectively reduced to 20%. Due to this 80% subsidized EITCA Academy access it may be a better option insted of a range of individual EITC certification programmes, if your are interested in attesring not a single skillset but your specialization in a given domain of IT.

In case of institutions and companies delegating their personel, the order can be made in an institutional account starting with at least 3 delegated staff members plans with numbers of additional services (including detailed monitoring and reporting for the progress of the didactic and certification procedures, as well as with flexible and cost-effective plans).

As with all professional certified competencies attestment programmes the EITCA Academy and its constituent EITC Certification programmes are generally not free (with exemption of fully subsidized participation for people living with disabilities, pre-tertiary school youth and people living in low socio-economic status in a number of low-developed countries, as specified in the Terms and Conditions). However the costs of the participation in the programme due to distant education and remote examination is effectively reduced in comparison to traditional stationary (physical presence based) certification programmes. The goal of the EITCA Academy is to possibly lower barriers in access to the EU based formal professional IT competencies attestation and make it widely accessible to all potential participants in the EU, as well as from anywhere in the world.

The current fees for the EITC Certification and the EITCA Academy Certification programmes are displayed in the Catalogue and are set correspondingly at € 110 and € 1100. The EITC/EITCA Certification fees encompass all the costs associated with the certification procedures and the earned certifications issuance in their digital form (it is also possible to print the digital EITC/EITCA Certifications if needed in a reference ready printable form available in PDFs from the electronic service of the EITC/EITCA Certificates validation).

The cost of the EITCA Academy and EITC Certification fees is significantly lower from the averaged cost of the comparable level of professional IT certification in the EU and internationally due to its online form. The EU issued certificates formally confirm digital comptencies gained through the certification examinations implemented remotely from Brussels under internationally recognized European IT Certification standard launched in 2008. Additionally due to a fully online form there are no travel/acommodation costs associated with traditional, stationary certification programmes.

Moreover as a part of EITCI Institute's continued commitment to supporting implementation of the European Commission's Digital Agenda for Europe (a public policy element of the Europe 2020 strategy) in its promoting of digital literacy, skills and inclusion pillar, there available EITCI Institute's indirect subsidies granted in reduction of relevant fees of the offered EITCA Academy programmes, further diminishing the economic barriers for professional IT competencies attestation for participants worldwide.

Finally, there are many educational resources freely available after registration of the EITCA Academy account, that allow one to better familiarize with the EITCA Academy model and to make a better-informed decission towards participation. In order to access these resources (along with relevant demonstrations) you can register your free account by clicking the Sign up button at the upper-right corner of this website.

The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) is a common reference framework in the EU, set by the European Commission to facilitate comparing comprehensiveness of attested qualifications. As such, it helps to differentiate qualification levels between different programmes and educational offerings, including academic and vocational programmes in the EU. The EQF reference can be applied to all types of education, training and qualifications attestation, from school education to academic, professional and vocational skills development. It changes the focus in differentiating learning outcomes from a standard approach based on learning inputs, such as programme contents measured in hours and types of educational institutions, to attested qualifications centric approach. By promoting qualifications based approach, the EQF framework supports validation of attested skills-oriented results between the formal and informal education, hence promoting the lifelong learning paradigm, expanding beyond member states formal educational systems. The EQF introduces 8 levels of reference for the attested qualifications comprehensiveness, which are in detail described in the Europass website, available at https://europa.eu/europass/en/description-eight-eqf-levels.

The EITCA Academy programme in terms of comprehensiveness of qualifications it attests can be referenced to the level 6 of the European Qualification Framework. It attests professional specialization that involves advanced knowledge in the relevant field of the EITCA Academy programme with assuring proper understanding of theoretical foundations, along with knowledge about corresponding practical applications aspects. It also attests advanced skills enabling EITCA Certifications holders to independently solve complex problems, as well as to reach high levels of professional specializations and to innovate in their respective fields corresponding to EITCA programmes they have been certified in. EITCA Academy attested qualifications additionally enable management of professional activities in the field, also including decision-making in professional contexts of IT applications in relevant fields, as well as leading adequate professional development activities either individually or in cooperative groups.

The European IT Certification framework has been established in 2008 as an official vendor independent standard in widely accessible, fully online formal attestment of digital skills and IT competencies in many areas of professional specializations.

It is one of the most recognized digital skills certification standards based in the European Union, but supports digital careers globally.

The popular institutions, governmental agencies or corporations which acknowledge this European digital skills certification standard are numerous, and there is a shortened list published in the About section on the EITCA Academy website in regard to larger global companies which delegated their employees to participate in various EITC / EITCA programmes in the past.

The history of the framework indicates some chosen major historic points in development of the standard.

The European IT Certification Institute governing the standard is an international not-for-profit organization acting in a legal form of the Association Without Profit Purpose (ASBL) in accordance with the provisions of the Title III of Belgian Law, granting legal personality to non-profit associations and establishments of public utility.

EITCI Institute is dedicated to accelerating growth of the information society and counteracting digital exclusion, among others by development and dissemination of the European IT Certification standard, increasing accessibility to professional IT certification among individuals in the EU and globally.

It has been carrying out its mission for over 14 years and has established one of the most recognized vendor-independent digital skills certification standards in the European Union. EITCI currently brings together over 3000 members in the EU and abroad within a network-centered collaboration, focusing on development of the European IT Certification programmes' curricula, as well as working on emerging IT technologies reference standardization in cooperation with many other international standards setting organizations and in support of the European Commision's H2020 programme.

Although the European IT Certification Institute is focused on development and dissemination of the European IT Certification digital skills attestation framework, it is also active in technical standardization and technology certification in emerging IT fields, such as AI applications in domains of critical importance (for example in AI assisted smart energy, cf. https://eitci.org/technology-certification/sesg) or in advanced quantum information and communication technology (cf. https://eitci.org/technology-certification/qsg).

How it worksin 3 simple steps

(after you choose your EITCA Academy or a selected range of EITC certificates out of the full EITCA/EITC catalogue)

Learn & practice

Follow online comprehensive didactics preparing for the exams. There are no class-hours, you study when you can.

Get IT Certified

Take online exam to earn EITC Certificate. Pass all in EITCA Academy & you are awarded EITCA Certificate.

Launch your career

The EU based EITC / EITCA Certificates with detailed supplements constitute a formal attestation of your professional IT skills.

The certification process (fully online) is implemented in English, however there are also available additional AI assisted reference translations for all referenced didactic materials and examinations, which are built-in in the interface of the platforms.

All the communication and support services (including unlimited access to online didactic consultancies with relevant experts) are also provided in English, however again with tools enabling AI assisted automatic translations for the participants.

Each EITC examination comprises 15 multiple choice (multiple answer) questions and has a time limitation of 15 minutes.

Accordingly to the applicable regulations, the EITC examination passing score is 60% of correctly answered questions out of 15 randomized multiple choice closed examination questions.

The individual examination question is only considered as answered correctly, when all its correct answers are marked, while all incorrect answers remain not marked. If, for example, only one correct answer is marked and remaining correct answers are left unmarked, or some other incorrect answers are also marked, then the relevant question is considered as not answered correctly.

In case of a failure in your examination attempt participant will be able to request additional attempts (one can also request examination retakes to improve the score one has achieved, noting that the highest scoring exam attempt will always be saved). One can request additional retakes from the Certification Center.

By undertaking the examination participants confirm to abide by the Terms & Conditions, which they have accepted at conclusion of the certification order placement. There is no limit of additional examination retakes and that they are granted at no additional charges. There is also no time limit to finish the programme.

All the certification processes within within the EITC / EITCA programmes along with all the examinations in EITC programmes are conducted fully remotely online within networking solutions in dedicated platforms in an asynchronous mode.

Thanks to flexibly of asynchronously organized referenced e-learning didactic process along with all the online examinations carried out asynchronously online (allowing highest flexibility in time with participant self organizing his learning and examination approaching activities at his / her convenience), physical presence of the participant is not necessary, therefore many access barriers are either diminished or eliminated (e.g. of geographic, logistic, economic nature).

A participant has an individual, unlimited access to the certification platform providing a well planned step-by-step referenced didactic process supervised by the staff responsible for the execution of the programme according to the guidelines of the EITCI Institute, with referenced electronic materials (including open-access): lectures (in a multimedia and text form along with illustrations, animation, photographs or videos referenced and available directly from the platform) with addition of tutorials, laboratories (also including educational trial access to the software, as well as relevant interactive applications) and unlimited remote didactic consultations.

The online referenced didactic materials for each EITC Certification programme fully covered its corresponding curriculum and end with a remote EITC examination (of the closed test characteristic, including 15 random closed multiple-choice test questions on the given EITC programme curriculum).

This remote test is taken by the participant within the certification platform (where the participant can undertake online the interactive test which implements random choice of test questions, having the ability to return to answered or unanswered questions within a time limitation of 45 minutes). The EITC examination passing score is 60% positive answers but failure in achieving this limit enables participant to retake the exam without additional fees (at each examination attempt there is one free retake available to either pass the test or improve its passing score, after which further examination retakes require application to the administration to be enabled but remain with no additional fee). Completion of all EITC examinations which constitute the relevant EITCA Academy Certification (with substitutent EITC programmes) results also in issuing to the participant of the corresponding EITCA Academy Certification (there are no additional EITCA examinations and the EITCA Certifications are issued on the basis of earning all relevant EITCA constitutent EITC Certifications).

All the procedures are implented fully remotely in Brussels and the Certificates are issued in a digitally secured and verifiable form to the participants.

An important feature of the certification platform enables for a detailed analysis of each participant's learning and certification process, including full statistics of all the activities within the cerification platform allowing to generate activity reports, as well as automatic identification and support of participants having problems with didactic materials and examinations. A thorough analysis of the activity in the didactic process enables an individualized supportive approach to identified participants if such is necessary. It also may be used by participants themselves to document formally their learning activities to third parties or for they own analysis and planning (especially useful for the institutions and companies delegating their staff for the certification).

The certification platform is continuously supported both administratively and technically. Administration includes technical management and overall control of the platform functioning. Technical support includes user support with a dedicated helpdesk and maintenance solving problems related to security subsystems, data archiving, database and updating platform functionalities (actions carried out continuously by the dedicated and specialized technical staff).

The curricula of the European IT Certification framework are updated on a regular basis. It should be noted that the European IT Certification framework is not a training service but a service of skills certification (or knowledge attestation). The service is in validation of skills and knowledge (qualifications) and provision of a verificable formal attestation of these qualifications in the form of the European IT Certification, which includes individual EITC Certifications and a comprehensive specialization attesting EITCA Academy Certifications. These certifications are granted upon passing their corresponding examination procedures and are valid for the verification by third parties to support documentation of participants' professional digital qualifications. Our service is in implementing the fully online certification process that we continue to develop in many fields of applied IT, pioneering this approach in a vendor independent way and in an online methodology. Most other digital certification providers have adopted similar models of operation only throughout a few recent years.

The European IT Certification programme certifies digital skills accordingly with its curricula as stipulated on the certification programmes' websites with referencing didactic materials (including open-access didactic materials), which are provided to fully cover in terms of didactics required certification curricula for the corresponding examinations (although it is not part of the EITCI certification service to provide training, as the core certification service is in testing, verifying and attesting participants' knowledge and skills, in-detail referenced didactic materials freely and openly accessible and covering full scopes of all EITC corresponding certification programmes' curricula are additionally referenced for participants' convenience, who can also use any other relevant educational resources or training services).

Since 2008 the European IT Certification Institute has supported open access to educational resources on digital technologies. From engagement in the ESF and ERDF funded projects of open-access educational materials creation and free dissemination, through cooperation with individual experts, publishing didactic materials in an open-access form, EITCI has contributed to a wide scale dissemination of free and open-access educational materials in digital technologies, some of which are directly used as referenced didactic materials that cover relevant certification programmes curricula.

The European IT Certification curricula are developed, updated and accepted by relevant EITCI committees of experts in relevant fields of experise, including both academics and practitioners. EITCI also provides for all participants of its certification programmes unlimited online consultancies by domain experts answering all questions in regard to the certification curricula so that participants can better prepare to undertake relevant certification examinations.

Since 2008 EITCI Institute has issued hundreds of thousands of EITC and EITCA Certificates worldwide (as well as close to 1 million digital certificates) achieving a number of over 1 million of individuals from 40+ countries who had acquainted themselves with the EITC/EITCA standard covering entry-level digital literacy and basic skills, specialized areas of applied computer science for IT professionals, basic to advanced computer graphics design, as well as programmes for public administration digitization (eGovernment) and countering digital exclusion among socially disadvantaged groups (especially people living with disabilities).

The main difference is that EITCA Academy Certification is formed from a certain group of topically related EITC Certifications (usually 10 to 12). Only by obtaining all of these substituent EITC Certifications the participant will be also issued a dedicated EITCA Certification which certifies specialization in a relevant field (earning the EITCA Academy Certification doesn't require any additional examination, it requires passing examinations on all substituent EITC Certifications).

It is possible to pursue EITCA Academy Certification by obtaining individual EITC Certifications in a seperate enrollment for each EITC programme (one by one), but it is also possible to directly enroll in for the EITCA Academy with an access to the whole group of EITC Certification within the chosen EITCA Academy. This entitles participant to EITCI Institute subsidized access granted by significantly reduced EITCA Academy fee, available worldwide to promote high quality and comprehensive IT skillsets dissemination.

The participant can choose between the realization of the complete EITCA Academy (grouping relevant EITC programmes), and the realization of a single EITC programme (or a certain selection of EITC programmes).

Each EITC Certification programme references curriculum of 15 learning hours of content ending with an exam for the relevant EITC Certification. Completion of EITC programme can be achieved on average in one to two days, however there are no time requirements and a participant can plan a longer period for didactics and examination preparations if needed (for example a week or 2 weeks by spending on learning correspondindly just one hour or 2 hours daily). If the participant already have knowledge and competencies in a corresponding to the EITC Certification curriculum, the participant can access the examination directly and thus earn the relevant EIC Certification immediately.

Each EITCA Academy comprises of 10-12 EITC Certifications altogether constituting a programme content of 150-180 learning hours. In general under the assumption that learning takes place in working week days it is possible to complete EITCA Academy programme in less than one month (every working week day learning). Another reference time schedule is one academic semester (usually 5 months) when a participant is able to complete the EITCA Certification programme curriculum by learning only one day a week.

The reference learning hours of the programme content mentioned above define a substantive measure of the comprehensiveness of the certification programme based on the standards of academic hours of study. This means that the corresponding educational conduct by the participant on average would take 150-180 hours, if it was conducted in a stationary form. Also it depends on individual participant's characteristic in preparation and learning abilities which may result in a faster or a slower pace of learning and preperation accordingly with the curriculum. Due to the fact that the training is conducted in asynchronous e-learning form, its actual implementation time depends on the individual skills of each participant and may be extended or shortened (the time frame of learning and preparation to certification is tailored to individual needs of the participants).

Yes. In both EITC and EITCA Academy Certification programme the learning and preparative didactic process includes unlimited remote consultations with the expert didactic staff from a relevant IT domain. If any difficulties with understanding of the concepts from the curriculum as well as in the supportive didactic conent and materials or in performing tasks should occur, or if a participant has any questions or concerns regarding the programme contents, didactic staff is to be consulted with by means of online communication and consultancy ticketing system. Consultation is conducted via a special interface in the certification and e-learning platform or by email. Forms and instructions for contacting and querying didactic consultation staff are to be found directly on the certification e-learning platform.

The current selection of available EITCI Institute issued Certifications comprises of over 70 EITC Certifications and 7 EITCA Academy Certifications.

Due to operationally limited in capacity for didactic support and consultancy thus limiting number of monthly issued EITC / EITCA Certifications some Certification programmes may be subject of temporal places unavailability. In such cases the Certification programmes with no places available can be booked by a participants, who will be informed when the places are again available and will be granted access to the relevant programmes on the first come, first served basis.

Yes, there is a possibility to retake both failed or successfully passed EITC examinations for improving of the passing score. At each examination attempt there is one free retake available to either pass the test or improve its passing score, after which further examination retakes require application to the administration to be enabled but remain with no additional fee. Participant can retake a passed test to improve the score for better presentation on the Certification. One should note also that there are no EITCA Academy examinations (the examinations are only assigned to EITC programmes only and passing each of them results with an EITC Certification issuing, while the EITCA Academy Certification is only issued for passing of a relevant group of all consistuent EITC examination in a given EITCA Academy programme). The scores presented on the EITCA Academy Certification are the scores of all EITC Certifications comprising given EITCA Academy.

Yes. Participants will have access to the e-learning platform with all the didactic materials and resources according to the curriculums in their relevant EITC / EITCA Academy Certification programmes also after completion of learning and preparations, as well as after passing the exams and earning their Certifications. The access will be indefinitely possible from the participants' accounts at the EITCA Academy.

Yes, both the European IT Certification framework and the European IT Certification Institute that develops this framework fully adhere to the ISO/IEC 17024 standards for bodies operating certification of persons. In particular EITCI does not provide commercial courses or training services in regard to the EITC and EITCA certification programmes, adhering to the requirements of the ISO/IEC 17024 standard for bodies operating certification of persons in disjoining commercial offering of training services and courses from the certification services due to possible biases and imparities in case in which a certification body would commercialize training or courses for the skills certification requirements it defines. All European IT Certification programmes are implemented according to the applicable Terms and Conditions. In particular all the EITC/EITCA certification programmes feature detailed curricula and the paid certification examination services. In all of its certification programmes EITCI Institute additionally provides its proprietary self-learning online and offline didactic materials, as well as programmes' step-by-step certification self-assessment partial examinations, along with unlimited online didactic expert consultancies answering all questions of its programmes' Participants in regard to the contents of the certification curricula to support their preparations in undertaking corresponding certification examinations, which constitute the paid services of the offered certification programmes. The programmes may also reference free curricula covering supportive materials in various forms as didactic aids to the participants, which are however not commercial and paid services in accordance with the ISO/IEC 17024 standard requirements, as it is specified in the §9 of the Terms and Conditions. Such free referenced materials may include open-access books, online tutorials and videos, all sharing open licenses to use them in order to be able to better prepare to the certification procedures implemented by the EITCI Institute under the EITC/EITCA certification programmes, but are not a part of a commercial certification service offering and are not a paid service. The paid certification services provided under the EITC/EITCA framework include online certification procedures, i.e. certification programmes examinations, relevant certificates issuance to the participants who have successfully passed corresponding examinations, certification data storage processing and online validation by third parties, as well as support and consultancy services for all EITC/EITCA certification programmes participants. The nature and scope of the certification service is fully specified in the specific certification programmes web pages, as well as in the Terms and Conditions, subject to an acknowledgment during the certification programme(s) enrolment. EITCI also provides an unconditional 30-days refund policy for both the EITC and EITCA certification programmes, extending the provisions of the consumer protection regulations implementing the Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on Consumer Rights, so that all individuals dissatisfied with the certification services may request a refunded cancellation of their certification programmes enrolments.

The EITC / EITCA Certification is an European based education and certification international programme standardizing frameworks of competencies attestment in the Information Technologies industry. It has no formal equivalance to any of the EU member states national educational programmes. However in terms of contents of the programme related to the comprehensive curriculums of the EITCA Academy, it's complexity and the resulting professional specialization attestment of the certification holder it can be best compared to the national-level accredited postgraduate higher-education studies in terms of learning workload and the attested competencies levels. On the other hand EITCA Academy Certification along with EITC Certifications are not equivalent to vendor-centric IT professional certifications issued by different IT vendors (such as Microsoft, Google, Adobe, etc.), being independent from vendors and thus focusing on real value of certified competencies, rather than standing as part of the strategy of product competition and marketing between IT vendors. However what EITC / EITCA Certifications have in common with the professional vendor issued IT certifications is that they also focus on practical aspects and applicability of the certified knowledge and skills.

What does it mean in practice?

EITCA Academy Certification is not a formal post-graduate national-level higher education diploma, but an international IT industry competencies certification standard, which is however vendor independent and is governed by the European Information Technologies Certification Institute, a vendor independent not-for-profit certification authority or certification body. Within EITC / EITCA Academy programme Certification holder does not obtain a national-level postgraduate educaitonal diploma or an IT vendor certification but an international and issued in Brussels, EU, Information Technologies industry-relevant formal competencies certification, with the range of certified knowledge and skills equivalent to the postgraduate studies in terms of the comprehensiveness (starting from 150 hours reference programme comprehensiveness) and a series of topical IT vendors issued certifications. There is no eligibility criteria to undertake EITCA Academy (or any component of the EITC Certification programme) and no prior qualification requirements (e.g. a bachelor degree achieved in the undergraduate studies is generally required to undertake further postgraduate studies in academic higher-education, which is not a precondition for the EITCA Academy participation).

The EITCA Academy certification alone enables it's holder to professionaly prove attestment of the mastered skills and competencies to work in the field of the held certification. While employers generally do require higher-education diploma in the given scope of professional specialization they generally very positevely welcome additional comprehensive skillsets attestements, especially in the domain of IT whether it is the primary subject of the candidate's education or not. If the competencies attestement is on comprehensiveness level comparable to the formal academic postgraduate education diploma, in some cases it may be considered by an employer to be a sufficient substitute, especially taking into account matters associated with the costs of studies in the higher education system of a given country). In other cases it will be a proper supplementaion of the formal education university diploma proving candidates international activity in self-development and setting him aside competitive applications without similar competencies attestments. The employers usually value highly incentive on the candidate's side in terms of self development, education and experience and as such will recognize the international certification of EITCA Academy in favor of the candidate. Summarizing EITCA Academy certification can be well treated as a way to supplement the undergraduate or postgraduate national-level educational diploma with more specialized, professional IT industry EU based certification. Certainly it constitutes an important asset in the certificate's holder CV proving his international ranged activity in the qualifications development. Even with specialized postgraduate education diploma a relevant EITCA Academy Certification will prove a highly valuable asset in the CV and will increase the employment prospects not only by formally confirming possesed IT qualifications and competencies but also by proving ability of the candidate to successfully pursue his education and self-development by obtaining the EU based internationally recognized IT industry-level, vendor independent certification.

According to the Bologna Process the EU works towards an integrated higher education framework. Currently main mean to achieve this goal is by standardization in all EU countries and some other countries willing to participate in this system that higher education should be based on qualifications and divided into main 3 cycles: the 1st cycle of qualifications (informally referred to as undergraduate studies, usually finished with the bachelor's degree), the 2nd cycle (informally referred to as postgraduate or graduate studies, usually finished with the master's degree) and the 3rd cycle, the doctorate studies (usually included not only education but also own research finished with the doctorate). Additionally to the above the Bologna Process has introduced the ECTS credits system (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) that introduces a measure of credits (or ECTS points) assigned to courses, usually with 1 ECTS being assigned to 15 up to 30 hours of stationary didactic programme. The ECTS credits serve as a reference to compare complexity of courses in different higher educational institutions and by agreements between these institutions to acknowledge the courses completed in different institutions on the basis of ECTS credits support international exchange of EU students and studying abroad.

By comparison of the complexity and content of the programme the EITCA Academy can be best compared to the postgraduate (2nd cycle) level of higher education even if it is not formally accredited as such by the national level administration, since it is an international standard. The competencies achieved by completion of the EITCA Academy as confirmed by the EITCA Certification are contentwise equivelent in terms of their comprehensiveness to the postgraduate university diploma, with this difference that the EITCA Academy certification is not a national-level issued document but an international and is focused on a particular field of IT, rather than on the whole discipline. This more specialized focus of the EITCA Academy certification might be advantagoues also in comparison to the postgraduate diplomas for a IT related professional career. Usually postgraduate studies programme is more broadely defined (e.g. Computer Science, Business Administration, Economics, Mathematics, etc.) than the EITCA Academy which encompasses one of the specific fields of Information Technologies (e.g. Information Security, Business Information Technologies, Computer Graphics, etc.). The postgraduate master's degree studies contain from 1500 up to 3000 programme hours referenced by 60 to 120 ECTS correspondingly (a standard academic year usually consists of 1500 hours). The EITCA Academy encompasses a didactic programme of 150-180 hours, however referenced by 30 to 60 ECTS (it comprises 10-12 EITC courses, each assigned with 3 to 5 ECTS on the basis of content comparison in reference to academic standards in relevant topics, with time-reference of 15 hours for each EITC course, corresponding however to 60 up to 90 hours in standard academic conduct due to the individual and asynchronous model of the education present in the EITCA Academy). Thus EITCA Academy can be compared to one academic year of higher education 2-nd cycle studies (master's degree level) in terms of comprehensiveness and complexity of the IT competencies formally attested. On the other hand the EITC certifications correpsond in contentwise terms to the academic courses in higher-education (assigned with 3 to 5 ECTS credits in the EU academic credits transfer system), as well as to the vendor-issued IT product or technology certifications, due to applicability and practical character.

In terms of content the EITCA Academy certification programme (equivalent of 150-180 hours of stationary classes, i.e. a standard academic year or 2 academic semesters) can be compared to specialized postgraduate studies, yet with the advantage of the EU certification standard with its international nature and recognition (EU based certificates issued in Brussels are highly recognized worldwide, even over a formal national system academic diplomas issued in non-central EU locations). An important feature of EITC / EITCA Certification programmes is a possibility to complete only chosen single EITC programmes corresponding to the individual courses forming the respective EITCA Academy (single specialized certified EITC courses with an average didactic content of 15 hours). The EITCA and EITC competence certification programmes include programme content designed within the bottom-up approach so that no prior IT knowledge is required to complete them, despite their advanced and specialized form. This enables even most specialized EITC / EITCA programmes to be successfully completed by individuals without prior IT expertise, while being also relevant for the IT professionals and experts in the corresponding domains.

Summarizing EITCA Academy is recommended as an internationally recognized professional IT certification supplementary to the national-level undergraduate or postgraduate level higher education diplomas (i.e. bachelor's or master's degree), which can however attest holders competencies in a more general or even different discipline from the field that the certification holder seeks to pursue for her or his career (with the relavant EITCA Academy Certification covering this very field). It is possible to succesfully seek employment without higher education diploma holding EITCA Academy Certification also because it can formally prove on the basis of the programme contents covered by the certification that the advancement of the attested competencies is equivelant to one year post-graduate academic studies for a master's degree, but within an international and IT industry oriented certification standard developed and disseminated by the European Information Technologies Certification Institute in Brussels, EU. It should be noted that the valuation of the EITCA Academy IT certification standard against the national-level postgraduate education diplomas or IT vendors industry-level certifications depends on the employer and his/her own beliefs and opinions, however evaluation of the EITC/EITCA holders careers indicates that the this standard recogniton increasing and not only so in the EU.

Answering the question if EITCA Academy and EITC Certifications are ECTS compatible is related to answering the question if you can account EITCA Academy or EITC Certification programmes completion to your ongoing future undergraduate or postgraduate academic studies within a national-level higher education formal system.

The answer is generally positive. Each EITC Certification and EITCA Academy programmes are awarded a defined number of ECTS points.

EITCI Institute communicates with the universities in the EU under the theme of the ECTS system (the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) offering bilateral acknowledgment of the educational programme contents (towards relevant EITC / EITCA Certification curriculums). Subject to these proposals certain EITC/EITCA Certificaiton programmes are awarded by EITCI Institute with the ECTS points, thus enabling European students among Certification holders to have their own learning that they underwent and proved to master by certification procedure to be accepted for their academic conduct. The ECTS constitutes a European standard in comparing volume of learning based on learning outcomes (in case of EITC/EITCA Certification measured by the examination results) and associated workload upon higher education as well as vocational education and training programmes conducted across the European Union and the cooperating ECTS countries.

For the earned EITC / EITCA Certification relevant ammounts of the ECTS credits are awarded depending on the particular programme (its complexity, comprehensiveness and associated learning workload) and these credits may be accepted by a Certification holder's university subject to a bilateral agreement between this university and the EITCI Institute. The EITCI Institute initiates the ECTS bilateral agreement inquiry with an indicated university on the basis of the application from the Certification holder who would like to have the earned ECTS points honored in her or his chosen university for ongoing or future academic conduct.

If you are either a Certification holder or represent a university interested or inquired by the students for accepting of the ECTS points for their relevant EITC/EITCA Certifications, please contact EITCI Institute and it will provide all the required details and documents to proceed further.

You don't also have to study on the European university to may inquire for acceptance of your EITC / EITCA programmes earned ECTS points. This will be however at sole discretion of the Dean office of your university. If you do study on the European university (not necessarily in the EU but also in the country participating in the ECTS system) this decision is more automatic, however it still remains an independent decision of your university in terms of a bilateral agreement towards accepting of the relevant EITCA Academy and EITC Certification programmes curriculums as valid for the corresponding academy conduct at the university.

It should be indicated that ECTS acceptance being decision on the side of the university administration to accept or decline honoring of completion of a certain EITC / EITCA Certification programme in the academic conduct of your studies is independent from the EITCI Institute, which can only justify relevant number of ECTS points awarded with its given certification programme and apply to a university for a bilateral ECTS agreement (such inquiry can be made by EITCI Institute or directly by a Certificate holder to the Dean office along with the relevcant EITC/EITCA certifications and their supplements - the templates of the ECTS points acceptance application documents can be downloaded after earning the Certifications). Both EITC and EITCA Certifications are provided with the detailed programme supplements that will allow proper consideration of contentwise equivalence with a relevant university course or the corresponding ammount of qualifications and competencies even by the universities in the countries which are not participating in the ECTS system.

Summarizing, the EITCA Academies consist of groups of individual EITC Certification programmes, each of those being assigned with the defined number of the ECTS credits, awarded to the certification holder after obtaining the Certification. The EITC/EITCA percantage based grading scale is also fully compatible with ECTS grading scale.

The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) serves as an EU based standard for comparing the academic study attainment and performance of students of higher education across the European Union and other European countries seeking to participate in the ECTS standard. For successfully completed courses relevant numbers of ECTS credits are awarded. The ECTS credits serve as a reference to compare complexity of courses in different higher educational institutions and by agreements between these institutions to acknowledge the courses completed in different institutions on the basis of ECTS credits support international exchange of EU students and studying abroad. It should be noted that many countries have similar standards, which can easily account ECTS credits as well subject to an individual application.

DigComp Framework
DigComp Framework

DigComp stands for the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens and is developed by the Joint Research Center of the European Commission.

The DigComp framework in its Dimension 1 references 5 key components (or areas) of personal digital skills of citizens:

  1. Information and data literacy
  2. Communication and collaboration
  3. Digital content creation
  4. Safety
  5. Problem solving

As per its definition, DigComp aims to provide a uniform digital competence framework for citizens with its areas focusing on personal and general digital competencies in contrast to IT applications oriented competencies in various areas of digital technologies.

This is a different approach from the one used in the definition of the European IT Certification framework, which aims to certify relevant digital competencies in specific areas of IT applications, e.g. in Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Web Development, Computer Graphics, Programming, Telework, eLearning, eGovernment and eAdministration, Business Information Systems, etc. The structure of the European IT Certification framework introduces EITCA Academy (European IT Certification Academy) programmes that address these areas of applied digital skills on beginner, intermediate and professional levels. Beyond the relevant applicable digital skills the European IT Certification framework also features the EITCA/KC Key Competencies Academy certification programme that is addressed to certifying the so called digital key competencies of a general character, well aligned to the Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Life-long Learning in the digital context and to the DigComp framework.

While both the European IT Certification and DigComp frameworks are fully vendor-independent the European IT Certification framework features a broader coverage of digital skills than the current scope of the DigComp, as certifies relevant digital skills both on the beginner or general citizen level (especially in the EITCA/KC Key Competencies Academy certification programme that closely aligns with the current DigComp 2.2 framework definition), as well as on more professional levels (including intermediate and advanced levels). The DigComp framework currently does not reference digital skills certification for IT professionals.

The EITCA/KC Key Competencies Academy well aligns with the scope of the DigComp framework including competencies areas of information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, safety and problem solving. This alignment can be mapped in the following way:

  1. Information and data literacy:
    1. To articulate information needs, to locate and retrieve digital data, information and content. To judge the relevance of the source and its content. To store, manage, and organise digital data, information and content.
      1. Primary EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies
        1. Mapping of the EITCA/KC Key Competencies constituent EITC programmes:
          1. EITC/INT/ITAF Internet technologies and applications fundamentals
          2. EITC/BI/ECIM eCommerce and Internet marketing fundamentals
          3. EITC/BI/OOW Word processing software fundamentals
          4. EITC/BI/OO Office software fundamentals
          5. EITC/BI/OOC Spreadsheets software fundamentals
          6. EITC/DB/DDEF Databases and data engineering fundamentals
          7. EITC/DB/DDMS Databases and database management systems
          8. EITC/OS/MSSAM Software administration and management
      2. Secondary EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence
  1. Communication and collaboration:
    1. To interact, communicate and collaborate through digital technologies while being aware of cultural and generational diversity. To participate in society through public and private digital services and participatory citizenship. To manage one’s digital presence, identity and reputation.
      1. Primary EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies
        1. Mapping of the EITCA/KC Key Competencies constituent EITC programmes:
          1. EITC/TT/MSF Mobile systems fundamentals
          2. EITC/BI/TF Telework fundamentals
          3. EITC/BI/CAPMF Computer-aided project management fundamentals
          4. EITC/INT/ITAF Internet technologies and applications fundamentals
          5. EITC/CN/CNF Computer networking fundamentals
          6. EITC/BI/ITIM Information technologies in management
      2. Secondary EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/TC Telework Competencies, EITCA/BI Business Information
  1. Digital content creation:
    1. To create and edit digital content To improve and integrate information and content into an existing body of knowledge while understanding how copyright and licences are to be applied. To know how to give understandable instructions for a computer system.
      1. Primary EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies
        1. Mapping of the EITCA/KC Key Competencies constituent EITC programmes:
          1. EITC/SE/CPF Computer programming fundamentals
          2. EITC/CG/CGVF Computer graphics and visualization fundamentals
          3. EITC/CG/APS Raster graphics processing software
          4. EITC/CG/VICG Visual identification in computer graphics
          5. EITC/BI/OOI Multimedia presentation software fundamentals
          6. EITC/INT/JOOM Website design and content management systems fundamentals
          7. EITC/BI/GADW Internet advertisement and marketing fundamentals
      2. Secondary EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/BI Business Information, EITCA/WD Web Development Academy, EITCA/CG Computer Graphics Academy
        1. Mapping of the EITCA/CG Computer Graphics constituent EITC programmes:
          1. EITC/CG/AI: Vector graphics processing software
          2. EITC/CG/AIDF: Desktop publishing software
          3. EITC/CG/BL: 3D graphics design and visualisation software
          4. EITC/CG/VR: Virtual Reality 3D graphics software
          5. EITC/CG/ADPD: Artistic digital portrait drawing
        1. Mapping of the EITCA/WD Web Development constituent EITC programmes:
          1. EITC/WD/HCF: HTML and CSS Fundamentals
          2. EITC/WD/JSF: JavaScript Fundamentals
          3. EITC/WD/PMSF: PHP and MySQL Fundamentals
  1. Safety:
    1. To protect devices, content, personal data and privacy in digital environments. To protect physical and psychological health, and to be aware of digital technologies for social well-being and social inclusion. To be aware of the environmental impact of digital technologies and their use.
      1. Primary EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies
        1. Mapping of the EITCA/KC Key Competencies constituent EITC programmes:
          1. EITC/OS/MSW Operating systems management fundamentals
          2. EITC/IS/ISCF Information security and cryptography fundamentals
          3. EITC/IS/EEIS Electronic economy information security
      2. Secondary EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/IS IT Security
        1. Mapping of the EITCA/IS IT Security constituent EITC programmes:
          1. EITC/IS/CSSF: Computer Systems Security Fundamentals
          2. EITC/IS/ACSS: Advanced Computer Systems Security
  1. Problem solving:
    1. To identify needs and problems, and to resolve conceptual problems and problem situations in digital environments. To use digital tools to innovate processes and products. To keep up-to-date with the digital evolution.
      1. Primary EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies
        1. Mapping of the EITCA/KC Key Competencies constituent EITC programmes:
          1. EITC/AI/AIF Artificial intelligence fundamentals
          2. EITC/BI/BAS Business and administration software
      2. Secondary EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/BI Business Information, EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence
        1. Mapping of the EITCA/BI Business Information, EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence constituent EITC programmes:
          1. EITC/CP/PPF: Python Programming Fundamentals
          2. EITC/AI/MLP: Machine Learning with Python
          3. EITC/AI/ADL: Advanced Deep Learning
          4. EITC/AI/ARL: Advanced Reinforcement Learning

Under the Dimension 2 of the DigComp framework there are currently defined 21 constituent competencies of the 5 major digital skills areas referenced in the Dimension 1. These competencies titles and descriptors can also be mapped in regard to the European IT Certification programmes. In regard to a joint conideration of the Dimension 1 and 2 form the DigComp framework the mapping of major EITCA programmes of the European IT Certification framework is following:

1. Information and data literacy
Competences (Dimension 2)

  • 1.1 Browsing, searching and filtering data, information and digital content
    To articulate information needs, to search for data, information and content in digital environments, to access them and to navigate between them. To create and update personal search strategies.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies, EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence
  • 1.2 Evaluating data, information and digital content
    To analyse, compare and critically evaluate the credibility and reliability of sources of data, information and digital content. To analyse, interpret and critically evaluate the data, information and digital content.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies, EITCA/BI Business Information
  • 1.3 Managing data, information and digital content
    To organise, store and retrieve data, information and content in digital environments. To organise and process them in a structured environment.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies, EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence, EITCA/WD Web Development

2. Communication and collaboration
Competences (Dimension 2)

  • 2.1 Interacting through digital technologies
    To interact through a variety of digital technologies and to understand appropriate digital communication means for a given context.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies, EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence, EITCA/WD Web Development
  • 2.2 Sharing through digital technologies
    To share data, information and digital content with others through appropriate digital technologies. To act as an intermediary, to know about referencing and attribution practices.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies, EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence, EITCA/WD Web Development
  • 2.3 Engaging in citizenship through digital technologies
    To participate in society through the use of public and private digital services. To seek opportunities for self-empowerment and for participatory citizenship through appropriate digital technologies.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies, EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence, EITCA/WD Web Development
  • 2.4 Collaborating through digital technologies
    To use digital tools and technologies for collaborative processes, and for co-construction and co-creation of resources and knowledge.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/TC Telework Competencies, EITCA/WD Web Development, EITCA/BI Business Information
  • 2.5 Netiquette
    To be aware of behavioural norms and know-how while using digital technologies and interacting in digital environments. To adapt communication strategies to the specific audience and to be aware of cultural and generational diversity in digital environments.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies
  • 2.6 Managing digital identity
    To create and manage one or multiple digital identities, to be able to protect one's own reputation, to deal with the data that one produces through several digital tools, environments and services.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/IS IT Security

3. Digital content creation
Competences (Dimension 2)

  • 3.1 Developing digital content
    To create and edit digital content in different formats, to express oneself through digital means.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/CG Computer Graphics, EITCA/WD Web Development
  • 3.2 Integrating and re-elaborating digital content
    To modify, refine, improve and integrate information and content into an existing body of knowledge to create new, original and relevant content and knowledge.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/CG Computer Graphics, EITCA/WD Web Development
  • 3.3 Copyright and licences
    To understand how copyright and licences apply to data, information and digital content.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/KC Key Competencies, EITCA/IS IT Security
  • 3.4 Programming
    To plan and develop a sequence of understandable instructions for a computing system to solve a given problem or perform a specific task.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/WD Web Development

4. Safety
Competences (Dimension 2)

  • 4.1 Protecting devices
    To protect devices and digital content, and to understand risks and threats in digital environments. To know about safety and security measures and to have due regard to reliability and privacy.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/IS IT Security
  • 4.2 Protecting personal data and privacy
    To protect personal data and privacy in digital environments. To understand how to use and share personally identifiable information while being able to protect oneself and others from damages. To understand that digital services use a “Privacy policy” to inform how personal data is used.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/IS IT Security
  • 4.3 Protecting health and well-being
    To be able to avoid health-risks and threats to physical and psychological well-being while using digital technologies. To be able to protect oneself and others from possible dangers in digital environments (e.g. cyber bullying). To be aware of digital technologies for social well-being and social inclusion.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/IS IT Security
  • 4.4 Protecting the environment
    To be aware of the environmental impact of digital technologies and their use.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/IS IT Security

5. Problem solving
Competences (Dimension 2)

  • 5.1 Solving technical problems
    To identify technical problems when operating devices and using digital environments, and to solve them (from trouble-shooting to solving more complex problems).
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence
  • 5.2 Identifying needs and technological responses
    To assess needs and to identify, evaluate, select and use digital tools and possible technological responses to solve them. To adjust and customise digital environments to personal needs (e.g. accessibility).
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence
  • 5.3 Creatively using digital technologies
    To use digital tools and technologies to create knowledge and to innovate processes and products. To engage individually and collectively in cognitive processing to understand and resolve conceptual problems and problem situations in digital environments.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence
  • 5.4 Identifying digital competence gaps
    To understand where one’s own digital competence needs to be improved or updated. To be able to support others with their digital competence development. To seek opportunities for self-development and to keep up-to-date with the digital evolution.
  • EITCA programmes mapping: EITCA/AI Artificial Intelligence

The DigComp 2.2 introducced additional dimensions that outline correspondingly:

  • Proficiency levels (Dimension 3)
  • Examples of knowledge, skills and attitudes (Dimension 4)
  • Use cases (Dimension 5).

The latest publication DigComp 2.2, presents the consolidated framework.

More data on the DigComp 2.2 model can be found at Joint Research Center.

The European IT Certification (EITC) and the European IT Certification Academy (EITCA) are Information Technologies professional certification programmes and as such, they do not constitute university or academic degree programmes, because these are required to adhere to national higher educational frameworks in which academic degrees are regulated. The European IT Certification programme is not implemented under a legal framework of any EU member state legislating national university programmes and academic degrees.

Instead EITC / EITCA Certification programmes are vocational qualifications attestation programmes accredited by the EITCI Institute, an international certification authority for these programmes, which issues the corresponding competencies attestation documents. Thus in terms of equivalence the EITC / EITCA Certifications could be compared to other professional or vocational IT Certifications which are not dependent on IT vendors, in contrast to popular vendor-centric IT certifications offered by e.g. Microsoft, Adobe, Google, etc. Thus completion of the EITCA Academy (or any of its constituent EITC programmes) awards the participant with a professional European IT Certificate issued and confirmed by the EITCI Institute, formally attesting expertise in a field relevant to the awarded certificate. This certificate however is not formally equivalent to a university diploma or academic degree, despite the fact that the curriculum comprehensiveness of the EITCA Academy may be compared in terms of curriculum attested qualification and their advancement to postgraduate studies, at qualifications comprehensiveness corresponding to the EQF level 6 reference.

The standard provides vocational qualifications attestation in a professional specialization in major IT applications fields. If there are any public or private regulations formally requiring a computer science academic degree (either Bachelor's degree or a Master of Science degree) and a relevant university diploma issued in one of national systems of higher education on the job position that one seeks to apply for, EITCA Academy Certification, along with its all constituent EITC Certificates, even though constituting a comprehensive attestation of the holder's IT competencies, will not allow one to pass the academic degree obligatory criterium. However, in many cases such formal requirement criteria are absent even for highly professional IT jobs, or if present, may be reconsidered by an employer if the application is strong otherwise. A lot of successful IT professionals with advanced careers in technology and business fields are not computer scientists by their university education and by academic degrees. Instead their practical skills, interest in IT, factual experience and possibly vocational skills attestation in various international certification programmes such as the European IT Certification standard, may still constitute a sufficient proof of IT skills and qualifications for an employer or a contractor.

Both EITC and EITCA Academy Certifications provide formal, internationally recognized confirmation of individual's competencies in specific fields of Information Technologies related to applied and practical in terms of job markets domains. The EITC / EITCA Certifications constite formal IT competencies attestment documents either supporting or replacing other formal ways of confirming knowledge, skills and competencies acquired within higher and vocational education or training (including national-level diplomas of the universities and schools). In this regard the EITC and EITCA Academy Certification is accompanied by a detailed Certification Supplement providing a standardized description of the content, complexity and level of IT competencies acquired by the Certification holder, designed as an aid to help in recognition of these competencies on professional fields of activities.

EITC and EITCA Academy Certification programme, conducted under the governance of the European Information Technologies Certification Institute (EITCI) in Brussels, results, after a successful completion of online examination procedure in awarding of the relevant EITC / EITCA Academy Certificates digitally issued in Brussels, EU, along with the detailed Certification Supplements.

Certification is possible both within the complete EITCA Academy programme in the chosen IT specialization (successfully passing the examinations within all EITC programmes included in the corresponding EITCA Academy programme result in awarding of the EITCA Academy Certificate and the Certification Supplement along with all relevant EITC Certificates), as well as within more specialized single EITC programmes (single exam and single EITC Certificate issued within each respective EITC programme).

The EITCA Academy and EITC Certification procedures result not only with issuance of properly secured digital Certificates (in case of the EITCA Academy accompanied by the detailed Certification Supplements and all the relevant EITC Certificates, and in the case of the EITC Certificates containing detailed description of the programme within the Certifacate itself), but also with provision of relevant validation services. Digital EITC/EITCA Certifications should be understood as their unique ID numbers, that upon entering along with the securing personal data to the EITCI Institute certification validation system allow for online verification of the held Certifications along with details of programme scopes completed by the Certificate holder, as well as printing of the adequate print-ready Certificates' versions and supplements. The EITC Certifications (obtained individually or as a part of the EITCA Academy programme) are designed with ID carrying visual tags (QR codes) that enable automatic machine recognition and Certification verification by visual tag scanning applications.

There is possible optional issuance of the secured paper form of the EITC / EITCA Certificates along with international delivery (paper form Certifications issuance requires additional fees dependent on the number of the copies of physically secured issued Certificates as well as the international delivery services for the paper Certificates shipment from Brussels to your country). It is also possible to permamently or temporarily use digital EITC/EITCA Certifications only (which you can print yourself if needed in a reference ready paper form from the electronic service of the EITC / EITCA Certificates validation).

The European IT Certification Institute cooperates on a standard basis with all European IT Certification holders after they successfully finish their programmes.

This includes support in digital jobs placements as well as opportunities for a direct collaboration with EITCI Institute or with its partners, who seek IT professionals for the employment.

All participants also retain access to the curricula didactic reference platforms and to the consultancies with domain experts that will be available to advise on the professional CV writing or interviewing in areas of particular specializations, such as web development, AI, cybersecurity, cloud computing, etc.

The European IT Certification Institute has also developed a dedicated free service (IT ID) to support European IT Certification holders in building modern digital CVs to support their jobs applications.

How to proceed in3 simple steps

EITCA Academy is implemented online under the European IT Certification standard. All formalities are fulfilled remotely. To enrol follow these steps.

Find certification

Browse certifications available in the field of your interest

Add to order

Add selected certifications to your enrolment order and check out

Enrol

Complete the fee payment to enrol in your chosen programme

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