IT-Fitness test

IT-FitnessTest and "certifying"
Short guided tour
by Claude Almansi claude.almansi@gmail.com,
Thanks to:
* Donald Duck
* Hannes Wohlwend, director of Educationpool AG and developer of the test,
for their guest appearance (C.A.)

History 1
November 2006: Bill Gates presents the IT-Fitness concept in Ingolstadt, Germany
14.03.2007 Angela Merkel, the German IT-Fitness test is launched by German Federal Chancellor
27.03.2007 Full German IT-Fitness initiative launched

History 2
04.10.2007 Swiss IT-Fitness test launched by Doris Leuthard, Head of the Swiss Federal Dept of economic affairs, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Hannes Wohlwend, director of Eucationpool AG , who developped the German test and adapted it into the Swiss version.
19.10.2007 The 100'000 th person takes the test in Germany.
The promotors of IT-Fitness Germania hope that 4'000'000 people will do so by 2010.

IT-Fitness sites
www.it-fitness.de German initiative
https://cert1.it-fitness.de/test.asp German test
www.it-fitness.de/training German course offer
www.it-fitness.ch Swiss initiative
https://cert.it-fitness.ch/ Swiss test
www.it-fitness.ch/de/lerninhalte.aspx Swiss course offer

Tour NB
When I tried to redo the Swiss test I had done as Donald Duck Donald Duck (getting the assessment and certificate we shall see at the end) to take some screenshots, it was impossible to sign in for the Swiss test
So I took them from the German version of the test, using the name "Hannes Wolwend", in homage to the developer of the German test of its almost identical Swiss version.
Anyway, the screenshots are also valid for the Swiss test

Sign-in CAPTCHA
In order to sign in, you have to copy the letters in a picture (CAPTCHA)
Blind people cannot do this

Signing in: identiy
You can take the test under any name, which then gets inserted into the assessment and certificate
Here I used the name of Hannes Wolwend, who developped the test

Q. 12 Printing 3 copies
"What must you do in order to print 3 copies of the active document"

No text description for
Screenshots
Zurück (back) and Weiter

Even if blind people get help
For signing-in
For navigating
They cannot answer screeshot-based questions

Q. 36: New messages in Outlook
"Which icon shows that you have a new message in Outlook?"

Q. 40: New messages in Outlook
"Which icon shows that you have a new message in Outlook?"

MS-biased, inane questions
The Microsoft bias is logical:
Bill Gates himself launched the "IT-Fitness" concept in Germany in 2006
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, co-launched the Swiss test
The directotrs of Microsoft DE and Microsoft CH sign the Assessments and Certificates
In CH, Wohlwend's Educationpool AG sells MS certification
But why are the questions so inane?
As to the icon for new messages: if a new icon shows up or if an icon blinks, folks usually mouse-over to find out why.

Test summary: screenshot-based Q.
I starred the questions that use screenshots
In this "Hannes Wohlwend" test there were 15 screenshot-based questions out of 42
In the "Donald Duck" test: 22 out of 42
Between one third and one half of the questions are screenshot-based, according to the test version that happens to be offered

Donald Duck's Assessment
Automatically generated by the IT-Fitness.ch version of the test
Downloadable from http://itfitness.wikispaces.com
As to "Besuchen Sie uns auf [visit us at] www.it-fitness.ch/training" ..

with wrong URL for the course page
www.it-fitness.ch/training cannot be found because it doesn't exist
Someone at Educationpool AG just changed .de into .ch in the – correct - www.it-fitness.de/training address mentioned in the German assessment
No one bothered to check
The correct URL for the Swiss course page is www.it-fitness.ch/de/lerninhalte.aspx

Donald Duck's IT-Fitness Certificate
Automatically generated by the IT-Fitness.ch test
Downloadable from http://itfitness.wikispaces.com
Signed by "Geschäftsführer der Microsoft Schweiz GmbH Peter Waser" and "Geschäftsführer der Educationpool AG Hannes Wohlwend" and

Under the high patronage of
SECO (State secretary for economy), whose logo appears on the certificate among those of the partners
Doris Leuthard, Federal Counselor and head of the Federal Department of Economy .

So, apparently
SECO is a partner because Ms Leuthard asked it to be
Ms Leuthard patroned the test without having it first checked because Ms Merkel had done so
Ms Merkel patroned the test without having it checked first because Microsoft DE offered it
Microsoft DE chose Hannes Wohlwend's Educationpool offer and proposed it to the German government without checking it first because...?

Summing up (1)
This test, patroned by SECO and Ms Leuthard:
excludes blind people
bears almost only on Microsoft products
doesn't even work as a "Microsoft-Fitness" test because it doesn't assess the capacity to use these products
has a crass mistake in the Assessment form
Exists only in German

Summing up (2)
On Oct. 23, 2007, at 11:00:00, according to the counter on www.it-fitness.ch/de/start.aspx , 4'664 people had already done the Swiss test.
4'664 people had already got an assessment and a certificate like the Donald Duck's ones

Zero cost?
In the « In IT bin ich fitter als meine Kollegen » interview, Ms Leuthard stated that endorsing the test did not cost the Confederation anything.
But 4'664 people spending 15 minutes in average to take the test = 1'166 hours
+ the time they took to prepare for the test in the delusion that it would make them "für die Zukunft qualifiziert" (qualified for the future) as promised on www.it-fitness.ch

For a worthless certificate
Instead, these 4'464 people only got a certificate as worthless as Donald Duck's
Which anyone can get in anyone's name
Without violating any rule because there are no rules

Risk for the economy
The endorsement of the certificate by SECO and by Ms Leuthard might mislead employer into preferring an incompetent but certified candidate over a competent one.

Let's stop this waste
please, Ms Leuthard.

Link
Donald Duck's Assessment and Certificate can be downloaded from http://itfitness.wikispaces.com
Further links in http://del.icio.us/noimedia/itfitness

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IT-Fitness test

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IT-Fitness test — Presentation Transcript