The Internet with its search engines, special job sites and portals, and websites of employers and employment agencies, has become a primary resource for job seekers. In fact, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find work without using online resources. With this in mind, on 25 August 2010 the Digital Literacy Center of Novosibirsk regional academic library held a special seminar for job seekers. The seminar was attended by ten Digital Literacy trainees, some of whom had already passed the Certificate Test and received their Digital Literacy Certificates.

On 24 – 25 August 2010 the Digital Literacy Center of M. Gorky regional academic library in Volgograd simultaneously launched two courses in Computer Basics for socially underserved residents of the city.

Recently the Digital Literacy Center of the Moscow Academy of Finance and Law held a special course for senior citizens who signed up for training after an intense Digital Literacy advertizing campaign in regional newspapers and social support centers. The course set a new age record: the oldest trainee was eighty-eight years old!

The Digital Literacy Center of the IT Academy in Novosibirsk held a seminar in employment search skills, attended by job seekers, senior citizens, people with disabilities and children from low-income families.

On 16 – 20 August 2010, under the RF President’s Program of Continuous IT Education, two educational centers at Saratov State University, the Center for Continuous IT Education and the Digital Literacy Center, held a retraining course for computer science teachers of Saratov and Saratov region, providing three training modules in computer science theory, basic programming skills and advanced digital literacy.

Since professional staff retraining and certification is one of the key prerequisites for its annual quality assurance audit, the Togliatti’s Science and Technology Center offered one of its departments on-the-job computer training using the Digital Literacy Computer Basics course. Since the ISO 9000 quality management system, used by the local companies and organization, lays special emphasis on personnel qualifications and retraining, the administration of the Science and Technology Center decided that free distance training in basic computer skills would definitely be useful for the department and all of its staff.

For one of the Digital Literacy courses in the Internet and the World Wide Web, the Digital Literacy Center team in Togliatti State University decided to try something new: knowing their young trainees to be fairly advanced computer users, they invited a trainer from one of the leading financial companies of the city and asked him to introduce the learners to basics of online trading.

On 17 August 2010, the Digital Literacy Center in Vladimir regional academic library held a seminar “New Job Search Resources: Looking for Work Online,” attended by Computer Basic trainees who were all looking for new jobs. Its participants learned to search the World Wide Web for vacancies, built their résumés in MS Word and then e-mail them and/or post them on job sites. They also learned about the formal requirements for business letters and looked at employment-related websites including Job.Ru (a leading Russian job site), joblist.ru (the largest server for job seekers), rabota.ru (another specialized job site) and a few other resources related to résumé building and other employment seeking skills.

Typically summer is a fairly intense affair in Russia, and the Mariy El Republic is no exception. This time because of the record heat wave and thick smoke from forest fires, many people chose to leave cities and stay in their country houses. However the Digital Literacy Center of Mariy El State University continued its work and on 16 August 2010, awarded Digital Literacy Certificate to yet another group of Computer Basics alumni.

On 12 August 2010, the Togliatti municipal employment center held a Vacancy Fair for college graduates. It was held in one of the largest local venues, the Volgar Sports Center. The Digital Literacy Center of Togliatti State University was one of the Fair’s most active participants, offering college grads full information on its training courses and events and providing an immediate opportunity to take the Digital Literacy Certificate Test and receive Microsoft’s Digital Literacy Certificate. In the four hours of the Fair twenty-two college graduates successfully completed the test and received their DL Certificates. Twenty-four people didn’t score high enough to pass; however most of them missed only by one point and decided to retake the test at home, with minimum distractions, and get the certificate later. The mobile computer class organized by the YCDL Center team was engaged to full capacity but because of the smallness of the site and limited number of computer workstations not everyone who wanted to take the test was able to do so.

Summer is a time of vacations, especially for colleges and universities, so in July and August 2010 trainee numbers were down at the Digital Literacy Center of Russian State University for Trade and Commerce in Samara. In view of the situation the YCDL Center team decided to organize and hold a series of seminars for potential students and their parents, introducing them to the Digital Literacy Curriculum, forms and methods of training and self-study as well as testing and certification.

In July 2010, eleven stay-at-home moms took a course in Computer Basics organized by the Digital Literacy Center in Samara. Most of the women were hard up financially and looking for work; they were also aware of how important ICT skills are for re-entering the workforce and did not want to be left behind. The trainees were especially interested in learning to use the MS Office productivity programs and the Internet.

On August 5, 2010, the Digital Literacy Center in Vladimir celebrated another achievement, awarding YCDL Certificates to its sixth group of alumni.

Togliatti State University has offered its staff and faculty members a seventy-two hour retraining course for higher education specialists “Developing Virtual Educational Multimedia Resources,” which contains a twelve hour module on MS Office productivity programs based on the Your Course: Digital Literacy Curriculum. Among those who have already completed the training are faculty members from the university’s Art, Math, Science, Engineering and Law Departments. The program was developed by YCDL trainers I. Dudina and O. Mikheyeva and approved by the RF Agency for Education.

Over the last few years colleges and universities have had to invest more and more effort into advertizing their courses. As the result of the demographic dip in the early 1990s, now, even with handsome scholarship offers, universities face a serious shortfall of students and a stiff competition, especially since now young people can apply to five different schools at once. Given all this, universities and their faculties search for creative solutions that would attract potential students. This fall the trump card of Togliatti State University is its partnership with Microsoft’s Your Course: Digital Literacy Program.

On 31 July 2010, the group of librarians from First Northern municipal district in Moscow completed a month-long course in Computer Basics. The training was the more challenging for the unusually hot weather and complicated vacation schedules, but both the trainees and their YCDL trainers stayed strong and powered through to the successful finish. All the trainees completed the course in time, sixty-seven people receiving YCDL Certificates and twenty-six of them scoring 90% - 97% on their Certificate Test. In addition thirty-two librarians were trained to be YCDL trainers; they will now facilitate digital literacy courses in their local libraries.

On 29 July 2010, the digital literacy center of M. Gorky regional academic library in Volgograd launched its seventeenth training course in Computer Basics.

Despite the prolonged heat wave which is extreme even for sun-loving Volgograd residents, twelve new trainees from underserved population groups faithfully showed up for their first session in Computer Basics. Most of them are senior citizens, low-income people and job seekers, who appreciate the importance of ICTs in the modern society and hope to make their lives better through acquiring the skills necessary to keep up with the times.

It’s 100°F in Moscow today, and the YCDL Project team is full of hopes and desired, inspired by the unusually hot weather. We hope that our partners in different localities have a chance to rest – and find ourselves wishing we could go down to the seaside. However the sea is far, far away, so we decided to create our own sea – a new incentive/appreciation program called “The Sea of Desires.”

Because it is also a good time to look back and reflect. It has been six months since Your Course: Digital Literacy was first launched in Russia. Thanks to the efforts of our coordinators, the Project is thriving: more and more people throughout the country are acquiring basic computer skills which are so important in our age of digital technologies. Yes, it is time to evaluate our first achievements, look at practical outcomes and share success stories.

On 22 July 2010, Tula regional academic library hosted a seminar for rural librarians from Tula region as potential participants of the Your Course: Digital Literacy Project.

In view of the challenges issued by the E-RUSSIA federal program, the task of developing e-government services and training Russian citizens in modern ICT skills is becoming more and more pressing. With this in mind, the Moscow Academy of Finance and Law, one of the leading Russian universities, is planning to organize and facilitate basic digital literacy training for more than 10,000 people in 2010 alone.

The unusually hot summer weather with temperatures in the high 90s did not stop trainees of the digital literacy center in Saratov from attending the Digital Literacy course in Computer Basics.

On 8 July 2010, N. V. Gogol central municipal library in Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo region, launched a digital literacy center as part of Microsoft’s Your Course: Digital Literacy Program.


The task of training Russian citizens in modern ICT skills is becoming a more and more urgent in view of the developing e-government services. The challenge is especially relevant in smaller towns and rural areas where the general level of ICT access and digital competence is lower than in major cities.

On 9 July 2010, the digital literacy center of A.S. Pushkin regional library in Tomsk held a seminar “Online Security: An Internet Provider’s Perspective,” attended by Computer Basics trainees, librarians and Internet Center users. The seminar was held at the initiative of Vera Timofeyeva, press secretary of Vympel.Com Company in Tomsk.

The Saratov State University for Social and Economic Studies started training its staff and faculty members to be Your Course: Digital Literacy trainers.

In April 2010, the ICT and Computer Science Department of Saratov State University launched an authorized Your Course: Digital Literacy center.

200th YCDL certificate was awarded at the digital literacy center of M. Gorky regional academic library in Volgograd. Its recipient was Lubov Melnikovich, who, despite her advanced age, successfully mastered the Curriculum and scored 90% on the Certificate Test. The alumna’s new skills will open up new prospects and opportunities, significantly expand her circle of interaction and enable her to keep in touch with friends and family.

On 22 June 2010, N.A. Zabolotzky secondary school in Sernur, the Mari El Republic, launched its own YCDL Center. The opening ceremony was attended by Nikolai Stepanov, the director of the Sernur office of VolgaTeleCom; Alevtina Tanerova, the director of the municipal department of education and youth policy; and Valentina Konyahshkina, the YCDL Project coordinator in the Republic of Mari El. All the speakers em-phasized the importance and urgency of digital literacy training in Sernur region and discussed the Project’s immediate plans, prospects and expected outcomes.

YCDL training courses in Ufa’s boarding school for the blind and visually impaired started on 22 March 2010, with training provided both for the school’s students and the faculty. The training sessions were facili-tated by the YCDL Center coordinator A.N. Adiatullina and YCDL trainer G. Z. Murzauildina who also serves as the school’s vice principal for ICTs. The training was much appreciated by all the participants who definitely plan to use their new digital competencies in their studies as well as professional, social and personal life.

On 10 June 2010, the YCDL Center of Volgograd State Agricultural Academy launched a new YCDL course for a group of senior citizens and job seekers. The authorized YCDL Center of Volgograd State Ag-ricultural Academy has been actively involved in using Microsoft’s Digital Literacy Curriculum to provide free computer courses for local underserved populations. As of today, 369 people have successfully completed the training receiving their YCDL Certificates.

In May 2010, Elena Khanycheva, a computer science teacher involved with teaching juvenile offenders and a volunteer at the YCDL Center of the Saratov University for Social and Economic Studies, held YCDL training courses for twenty-four inmates of the local juvenile penal colony and thirty-four staff workers of the colony in. Given the context, all the training was done in the off-line mode.