it-fitness test

1. IT-FitnessTest and "certifying"

Short guided tour

by Claude Almansi [email protected],

Thanks to:

* Donald Duck

* Hannes Wohlwend, director of Educationpool AG and developer of the test,

for their guest appearance (C.A.)

November 2006: Bill Gates presents theIT-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

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 ofEucationpool AG , who developped the German test and adapted it into the Swiss version.

19.10.2007 The 100'000 thperson takes the test in Germany.

The promotors of IT-Fitness Germania hope that4'000'000 people will do so by 2010.

www.it-fitness.de German initiative

https://cert1.it-fitness.de/test.aspGerman test

www.it-fitness.de/training German course offer

www.it-fitness.chSwiss initiative

https://cert.it-fitness.ch/Swiss test

www.it-fitness.ch/de/lerninhalte.aspx Swiss course offer

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

In order to sign in, you have to copy the letters in a picture (CAPTCHA)

Blind people cannot do this

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

"What must you do in order to print 3 copies of the active document"

Screenshots

Zurck (back) and Weiter

For signing-in

For navigating

They cannot answer screeshot-based questions

"Which icon shows that you have a new message in Outlook?"

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.

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

Automatically generated by the IT-Fitness.ch version of the test

Downloadable fromhttp://itfitness.wikispaces.com

As to "Besuchen Sie uns auf [visit us at] www.it-fitness.ch/training" ..

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/trainingaddress mentioned in the German assessment

No one bothered to check

The correct URL for the Swiss course page iswww.it-fitness.ch/de/lerninhalte.aspx

Automatically generated by theIT-Fitness.chtest

Downloadable fromhttp://itfitness.wikispaces.com

Signed by"Geschftsfhrer der Microsoft Schweiz GmbH Peter Waser"and"Geschftsfhrer der Educationpool AG Hannes Wohlwend"and

SECO (State secretary for economy), whose logo appears on the certificate among those of the partners

Doris Leuthard, Federal Counselor and head of theFederal Department of Economy .

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...?

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

On Oct. 23, 2007, at 11:00:00, according to the counter onwww.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

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 "fr die Zukunft qualifiziert" (qualified for the future) as promised onwww.it-fitness.ch

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

The endorsement of the certificate bySECOand by Ms Leuthard might mislead employer into preferring an incompetent but certified candidate over a competent one.

please, Ms Leuthard.

Donald Duck's Assessment and Certificate can be downloaded fromhttp://itfitness.wikispaces.com

Further links inhttp://del.icio.us/noimedia/itfitness

it-fitness test

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