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| Success Stories |
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| 01.09.2010 Togliatti | |
Togliatti State University
| | Elena Ivanova: “I want to launch my own online shop” |
Internet technologies have become an indispensable tool in industry, education and business, and XXI century life without them is all but unthinkable. For a modern woman the Internet is both a knowledgeable friend and a business opportunity. Elena Ivanova, an economist from Togliatti, loves arts and crafts and spends most of her free time creating stain glass designs and making all sorts of household items out of wood, iron, fabric, paper and natural materials. Once she posted pictures of her crafts online, she quickly began receiving orders and understood that it could become a very profitable venture. Now Elena wants to launch her own online shop without having to hire professional website designers which means that she will need more advanced ICT skills. However Elena is undaunted: her ambition of owning an online boutique of exclusive arts and crafts is too strong to stop now.
“Even though Digital Literacy training is meant primarily for beginners,” says the alumna, “I found it extremely useful. I constantly used MS Word and MS Excel for work, but my knowledge of these applications was very limited. During the training I gained many helpful skills including efficient work with tables and spreadsheets, using formulas, styles, headings and graphics, creating hyperlinks, automated reference lists and glossaries. When I was mastering MS Excel, I learned to use financial functions and now I know how to use this application to make complex economic calculations and model various financial situations, which has been very helpful for my day job.”
“As for my hobby, here the most useful Digital Literacy modules were The Internet and the World Wide Web and Digital Lifestyles. I am an active Internet user, but until recently I only went online in search of information and didn’t think of posting anything myself. I thought that creating a website was a difficult and costly proposition and never even considered it as a possibility. Imagine my surprise when I heard that there are free web design and hosting services that require users only to choose appropriate templates and supply the content.”
“I got registered with an online shop and offered my arts and crafts for sale. Once photos of my work were posted on the shop’s website, I quickly began getting orders. But now I think that I can do better than that. What I would really like is to own my own online handmade boutique with a pleasant and accessible interface where shoppers would always feel welcome to browse, ask questions and place orders. I want my girlfriends to get involved as well – especially since now one can launch an online shop without having to hire professional web designers. Thanks to Digital Literacy I know this now!”
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