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| Success Stories |
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| 28.08.2010 Togliatti | |
Togliatti State University
| | A Story of How a First Grader Found His Mom a Job |
People come to the Togliatti Digital Literacy Center for different reasons. Ludmila Abletz, a nurse working in the local ER, signed up for the training because her son was about to start school and needed her help. Now Ludmila is a confident PC user, and her digital skills have also helped her to a new job: she has been promoted to the position of a database manager in her emergency room.
“In my high school and then in the nursing school I went to we didn’t have computer science,” says Ludmila, “so I’ve always felt intimidated by computers and tried to stay away from them – which was just fine, because my work didn’t really call for any digital competence. But now that my oldest son is about to start first grade, his future teacher told us that he would definitely need a computer. Buying a computer wasn’t a problem, but none of us knew what to do with it. One day someone at work told me about the free training at the Digital Literacy Center, so I decided to sign up.”
“I was the slowest learner in my group because I didn’t even know how to use a computer mouse. My son was learning alongside me and my husband but he did it all much better and faster than either of us, so my husband and I had to practice all the time just to keep up with him. Sometime the only thing that kept us going was the fear of losing face and all parental authority. Once we began learning to use the Internet it became an additional incentive to master the computer faster. Now I cannot even imagine how we all lived without the Internet just three short months ago!”
“Aside from all the fun of computer games and cool online resources, for me the main outcome of the training is that I found a new source of income. My work in the ER gives me three days off after each full day of work, which is ideal when you have small children. However recently our ER had to downsize the position of a statistician with the idea that one of the nurses would take over as our database manager. I was the only one there with computer skills, so the responsibility fell on my shoulders. At first I turned for help to my Digital Literacy trainer and my neighbor Zulya Sariyeva. But soon it became clear that my new job wasn’t that difficult after all and I was coping just fine without any assistance. The greatest advantage is that I can manage the database from home, e-mailing data to the statistics office once a week. Besides, in addition to my small nurse’s salary I am making some extra money. I am very glad that I have taken Your Course: Digital Literacy training; it not only gave me more self-confidence but also helped me find a new source of income. A million thanks to all those who have initiated and organized free computer training for people like me!”
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