SCHOOLS Background It has long been recognised that learners need to be given fundamental IT skills during their school careers. Many schools have adopted programs which allow learners to attain these skills during school hours as part of their normal curriculum or after hours in their computer training centres. The Challenge Teaching IT is not easy. Schools running existing programs are faced with many of the following challenges:   The level of IT literacy of Grade 8 learners coming into the school is varied and existing programs do not cater for this. Primary schools are teaching more and more IT literacy each year and this increases the pressure on high schools to offer Grade 8 learners a way forward. Difficulty is experienced in accommodating students who learn at a faster pace than others in the same class. IT is especially prone to this and many a school suffers from the fact the learners know more than the teachers. Programs tend to rely heavily on the teachers providing instruction and it is difficult for teachers who have not had the commercial IT experience to keep ahead of the class. IT teachers are also expected to look after the schools infrastructure which can lead to classes being disrupted. Schools often choose teaching staff who come from an IT background to provide the teaching and look after the infrastructure. This leads to frustration because delivering the lessons is boring and takes up too much of their time which can be better used in supporting the school. Curricula offered by the schools need to be aligned with internationally acceptable and easily recognisable certification programs or Microsoft's Office Specialist to maximise the benefits. Our Solution Our Solution for Schools IT Skills program consists of Multimedia courseware, the leader in Computer Based Training. These courses provide instruction from the computer through interactive audio visual tutorials. Each student has the opportunity to learn at his or her own pace and is given feedback on their progress through knowledge testing. Where students require extensive instruction, they are able to go over the demonstrations multiple times without holding back the class. Students who have acquired the basic skills and desire to move ahead can be given further modules to meet their learning abilities. Teachers now are able to manage the learning process instead of teaching and are therefore able to concentrate on the exceptions. Since the courseware is designed for self study, instruction can be given in more advanced IT subjects allowing students to gain maximum benefit from the school's IT Skills program. School Requirements We are looking to work with schools that have moved beyond the mere provision of IT infrastructure. Participating schools must have at least one class room equipped with enough multimedia enabled PCs (sound cards) connected to a network for each student in the largest size class. There must also be a desire to innovate and lead. The concept of using IT to teach IT is relatively new in South African schools and self paced learning also presents a new paradigm. If your school meets these requirements and you can identify with the challenges and opportunities, please feel free to contact us to discuss working together. We are always interested in learning from schools and adapting our current offering to meet the needs of our school communities.