Information and communication technology (ICT) skills for students

I know that I have a diverse range of information and communication technology skills, i am pretty comfortable using Microsoft word, Power Point and Excel. I believe that the main reason I developed Information and communication technology as one of my strongest skills is because if I did not know how to do something on Word , Excel or PowerPoint or even regarding Letters or emails then I would try and figure it out for myself and put it into practise.

Within the first year of College when I was studying a Business Administration Course I had core units involved in my technology communication unit which I had to study. This involved me; writing complaint emails, meetings emails, interview emails and promotional emails. I got feedback off the teacher saying how professional that my email communication was within the unit and achieved high grades. I also had to choose an additional subject to study on my course and I chose to study a higher ICT course. This helped me to develop my Microsoft word, PowerPoint and Excel skills even further. This consisted of me using more in depth formulas in Excel along with creating charts to show final figures. It largely developed my skills further in PowerPoint by teaching me about how much information is required on the slides , how it can look more effective with animations and how to hyperlink slides. I improved my Microsoft word skills further by learning about how to use mail merge.

I also showed good evidence when I put my Information and communication technology skills to work in my Business Management course at college when I had to create a billboard advertisement for a new healthy product. I put all my skills together that I had gained from previous years. As my teacher quoted ‘It’s an eye catching and very professional piece of work’. Within this college course I also used my Excel skills that I had learnt in previous years to produce an income sheet for our creating a small business module.

I showed good information and communication technology skills within work when I used Microsoft word to make a router for the receptionist. This had to be done with professional skills or else this could have caused many problems due to confusing and wrong information being displayed. I used these skills when I was at work and I had to do a presentation about why health and safety is important. My feedback from my manager is that the PowerPoint looked professional and was eye catching and creative. At work I am expected to keep all members of the receptionists up to date with emails, therefore, this is evidence that I also use professional emailing techniques that is also needed when regarding information and communication technology skills.

I carried relevant audit material called; ICT skills where I had to rate different statements from one to five; one being No experience and five being; Expert. There were different areas involved which I had to rate. I felt the most skilled areas consisted of; Communication using word processing, handling information using spreadsheets, the internet as a learning resource, handling information using databases and working with pictures. I had never realised how confident and knowledgeable I was within these areas until conducting this self audit material. I knew that I had good Information and communication technology skills but I did not realise just how confident was until I ticked certain statements. It shows that I have a good firm understanding within ICT Skills and that I would regard this as one of my main strengths as all through the audit material I did not rate anything below a four. To me this just backs up my expertise within this area.

I became aware of my information and communication technology skill when I saw that the section regarding; Information literate and IT literate was all rated as five. This showed that I had good knowledge within this area and it became obvious that I would class my information and communication technology as one of my main strengths. Some of the statements within the information literate and IT section involved; comfortable using computers, including different applications in context:

• Knowing where to use information and cite and reference
• Understanding how to use different software effectively
• Able to evaluate the effectiveness of different software effectively etc.

Through reflecting on the outcome of this audit material it is obvious that I have a wideness of understanding within information and communication technology.

I believe that information and technological communication is an important skill to have in Human Resources. This because you have to send emails to fellow colleges, other departments and senior managers along with writing emails of success to candidates and also meeting and interview invite emails. You will also may be expected to send out unsuccessful applicant letters. ICT skills are even needed for letters as they are processed on computer or laptop. You will also be expected to be able to successfully use Excel when you are making tables including dates and times of interviews for the candidates. PowerPoint will be expected to be used when having team meetings. For example if you need to make the department aware of a certain change in the legal system that may affect the running of the department or if there has been a new work place procedure that has been brought in that may cause some change within the workplace.