The State's first CyberSkills workshop will be officially opened by the President, Mrs McAleese at Blanchardstown public library in Dublin next Tuesday. The workshop is designed to raise awareness about information technology and provide people with basic IT skills by introducing them to email, the Internet, multimedia and video conferencing. It is the culmination of a partnership formed between Fingal County Council and ICL after demand for IT skills in the community became apparent.

Requests to the library for participation in the course have come from diverse quarters, including individuals, employees, students, teachers, pensioners, voluntary workers and entrepreneurs. The CyberSkills model was created and developed by the South Bristol Learning Network in partnership with ICL. CyberSkills workshops have been designed to raise awareness via practical experience, and are focused on individual needs. They require no previous knowledge of technology and the emphasis is on identifying tasks that participants want to carry out and then using the technology to do it.

During the launch there will be a video conference link-up with Synergy, a similar workshop in Belfast. School children from Blanchardstown will converse in real time with children in Belfast via a video conference link. Features of CyberSkills will also be demonstrated to President McAleese by senior citizens.

The launch takes place at the library in the Roselawn Shopping Centre at 11.30 a.m.