Frequently Asked Questions

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The European Information Technologies Certification Institute (EITCI Institute) is an international non-profit organization seated in Brussels and working towards development and dissemination of high quality standards in IT competencies training and education as well as in IT systems and solutions through processes of standardization, accreditation and certification by joint effort of academic and industrial experts from the European Union and abroad.

Legal form of the EITCI Institute is an “ASBL” (“Association sans but lucratif”), i.e. an association without lucrative purpose or a non-profit association, in accordance with the provisions of the Belgian Law of 27 June 1921, granting legal personality to non-profit associations and establishments of public utility as amended (Loi du 27 juin 1921 sur les associations sans but lucratif, les associations internationals sans but lucrative et les fondations, M.B. 1 juillet 1921).

EITCI Institute brings together representatives of academia and industry in relevant, specific IT fields, who cooperate towards development and dissemination of high quality IT certification curriculums in professional Information Technology competencies as well as technical specifications and solutions. EITCI Insititute focuses on development of methodologies and standards to support digital skills and expertise dissemination in the international society, along with dedication to improvement of quality and safety of ubiquitous IT applications, with special attention set on the areas of quantum information, artificial intelligence, robotics and information-communication security.

Altought EITCI Institute's legal seat and registered office is in Brussels, Belgium, its operations are distributed and networked internationally with main focus of activity in the European Union.

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The term EITC is an abbreviation of the European Information Technologies Certification, a 2008 initiated programme of a vendor independent European Union based standard for fully online attesting of IT skills and digital competencies in a narrowly defined area, governed by EITCI Institute.

The term EITCA is an abbreviation of the European Information Technologies Certification Academy initiated right after EITC programme to group several topically relevant EITC Certifications providing specialization attestement in a certain domain of IT. Likewise with EITC programmes there are distinct EITCA Academy programmes, in which every single EITCA Academy includes a set of substituent topically relevant EITC Certifications. Earning EITCA Academy Certification is corresponding to earning all of the substituent EITC Certifications and is supplemented by an additional joint EITCA Certification.

The European IT Certification framework including EITC and EITCA programmes digitally accessible online with diminished location-type barriers aims to implement European Commission's Digital Agenda for Europe upon Europe 2020 Strategy to reinforce development of the digital single market and the growth of the Information Society. In particular it addresses one of the fundamental 7 pillars of the Digital Agenda for Europe as programmed by the European Commission, i.e. Promoting digital literacy, skills and inclusion. It does so by providing, developing and disseminating since 2008 a comprehensive and competitive pan-European standard of high quality, multi-level IT competencies attestement framework, facilitating life long learning in the key area of digital skills with the strategic importance for personal development. It also addresses the issue of inclusion by supporting on a worldwide scale people living with disabilities, people of low socioeconomic status and pre-tertiary education youth with EITCI subsidies granted through waiving certification fees.

EITCA Academy is an internationally reaching implementation of the fully online European IT Certification services carried out by the EITCI Institute (certification governing body / certification authority). Both learning and examination methodologies for the EITC/EITCA Certification incorporate technology assisted fully remote form online. The EITCA Academy comprises both the EITCA and EITC Certifications available as an EU based framework for individuals' professional IT competencies formal attestation, acknowledged internationally and thus providing individuals with their professional IT skills recognition, regardless of their nationality upon the digital documents and their electronic form issued and verifiable by the EITCI Institute in Brussels. EITCA Academy constitutes international IT competencies certification framework, which on the level of its advancement and content (including over 150 hours of standard academic referenced programme) is comparable to postgraduate higher education and professional industry training. It is available in the EU and abroad exclusively within distant learning and distant examination form, therefore enabling both the EU and non-EU citizens access to formal confirmation of their professional IT competencies and skills from Brussels with the attestation standard based on the EITCI certification framework. More details on the programme can be found on the EITCA Academy website.

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  • The European based and internationally recognized EITC / EITCA IT competencies attestment standard might constitute an interesting and competitive complementary educational offering for both EU and non-EU citizens (public educational sector students, individual and business customers of private education centers, professionals and other society groups).
  • Since all certifications with relevant supplements are issued in Brussels they constitute an EU based confirmation standard of individually possessed IT competencies & skills, enhancing professional profile of a Certificate holder and proving his or her self-development in an international scale (while still being accessible with diminished barriers by means of distant learning and distant examination via Internet platforms). European IT Certifications issued in Brussels are digitally secured and electronically validable.
  • All issued Certifications are electronically processed and managed by the EITCI Institute, thus being verifiable on-line from anywhere and at anytime with all details via EITCI services.
  • The EITC digital skills attestment standard can be considered as an additional confirmation of an international rank of qualifications in the area where the candidate is or aims to be educated by domestic standards. In the case a candidate mastered a particular specialization, with little effort can also master a corresponding particular EITC / EITCA Certification and proceed with examination procedure implemented fully remotely over the Internet at significantly lower cost in comparison to stationary education).
  • Earning an international Brussels issued certification in an adequate domain of applied Information Technologies enhances individuals competitiveness on both their local and global job markets (international certification holder stands out from other candidates), and provides formal documentation to facilitate securing a strategic professional position in the digital society of the future.
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The standard fees applying to EITCI Institute's commercially offered certification services are differentiated in the following way:

  • For the EITC Certification the standard fee is 110 Euro, however it can be reduced in the EITCI subsidy programme granted by fee waiving up to 80% upon the EITCI Institute's Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition pledge
  • For the EITCA Academy Certification (consisting of a number of EITC Certifications) the standard fee is 1100 Euro and it can be reduced in the EITCI subsidy programme granted by fee waiving up to 95% upon the EITCI Institute's DSJC pledge

According to EITCI Institute’s mission and EU guidelines all the EITCI Certification Programmes are also freely (noncommercially) available to all disabled persons, to pre-tertiary schools students, as well as to people living in low socioeconomic status in a number of low-developed countries (including Syria, Palestinian Territory, Haiti, Yemen, Gambia, Malawi, Burundi, Congo, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Mozambique).

The European Information Technologies Certification Institute is especially dedicated to supporting people with disabilities, believing that digital skills are one of the most important means in overcoming different physical bariers related to disabilities.

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The European reference in the name of the EITC / EITCA Certification standard stands for the programme being standardized across the European Union independently of the national frameworks and aimed to become a quality reference European standard under the governance of the European Information Technologies Certification Institute. The standard is developed and disseminating conforming to the goals of the European Commission's Digital Agenda for Europe policy of the Europe 2020 flagship development strategy - addressing the promoting digital literacy, skills and inclusion pillar of the DAE. The European IT Certification (EITC) standard as well as the overlapping European IT Certification Academy (EITCA) standard focus on the European Union pronouncing enhancement of information society development by promoting life long learning, inclusion of hampered social groups and disseminating digital literacy and IT professionalism.

The EITC / EITCA Certification framework's curriculums are developed by programme committees of the European Information Technologies Certification Institute including academics, educators, practitioners and industry professionals. The European IT Certification framework is thus independent from specific IT vendors in contrast to many vendor-centric IT certifications (like e.g. Microsoft, Adobe, Google and other vendor developed competencies attestment standards, which are dominated by American companies). This assures that the goal of certification programme is to address quality in relevant areas of applied IT competencies and skills rather than to promote specific technology solutions according to vendors' own interests and allows EITCI to pursue a European digital skills attestment standard.

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Generally EITCI implements two models of cooperation with commercial partners offering own training services related to digital skills:

  • Standard licensing model for the European IT Certification programmes, in which case there is undertaken only a minor auditing of partner organization and the methodologies of the provided services with the contents of training offer for qualification. If accepted the partner center is Accredited as a Licensee and can market its training services as implementing European IT Certification programme. The partner trainees can take the relevant examinations and additional didactics only upon the corresponding EITC or EITCA Certification programmes available at EITCA Academy (https://eitca.org). EITCI Institute is not concerned for the duration of the training programmes and the prices the partner charges for its training services. All of the certification exams will take place on the EITCI Institute side by online means and will be paid on standard terms within EITCA Academy (including relevant EITCI subsidies if applicable). A licensed partner is entitled to market its affiliation with the European IT Certification programme along with the EITCI Licensee Agreement and Accreditation. The partner receives 50% commission of the value of each EITC/EITCA Programme participant financial contribution. The financial settlement of the ordered Certification programmes can be done by either the partner company indirectly or directly by Programme participants, which in this case the partner needs to identify to qualify for the relevant commission. Please refer to more details of the terms and conditions of this model of cooperation.
  • The EITC X External Certification Programme which is more flexible and allows highly qualified and recognizably institutionalized educational centers to implement the European IT Certification accreditated examination process on their own in either online or stationary mode. The Accreditation for the EITC X programme requires a throughout qualifcation audit of the methodology and content of the training programmes that the partnering center will offer in regard to EITC X Certification. Licensing in EITC X programme means for the partner's clients that they do not have to additionally undertake online examinations at the side of EITCI Institute. Examinations are on the side of the parnter but its training programme and certification procedures need to adhere to the detailed licensing terms and conditions determined after the qualification audit if it is passed. EITCI Institute is charging a license fee for each issued EITC X Certificate which is determined upon the auditing of each relevant training programme it applies to. EITC X provides a partnering training center with a higher flexibility level in their educational programmes formulation and imlementation (including pricing policy governed by the partner for each EITC X accredited training programme) but requires adhering to high quality standards and recurring detailed auditing regarding the contents of the programmes and how they are being implemented. This model of cooperation can be carried out jointly with the standard licensing. However only reputable and renowned educational centers are qualified for the EITC X programme. Please refer to more details on this model of cooperation.

If you represent an IT training provider or related educational entity and would like to proceed with the cooperation, please contact EITCI Institute. For additional details please consult the Cooperation section.

EITCI Institute commercially disseminates its Certification programmes in cooperation with licensees (EITCI Accredited Licensees). Within this cooperation EITCI Institute's partners with external IT education services providers who implement relevant Certification training on their own and accordingly with the model of license and accreditation either direct their trainees to EITC/EITCA Certification procedures implemented by EITCI Institute or implement them on their own in the EITC X programme. The license fees required by the EITCI Institute enable it to cover the costs of operations in the standard development, dissemination certification processing, including:

  • Costs of examination and certification procedures (which are significantly minimized by being performed in a fully remote mode via online examination platform),
  • Costs of appropriately secured certifications and their detailed supplements comprehensive management with instant, fully online electronic validation services,
  • Costs of further development of the EITCI governed IT Certification standards along with new curriculums defining and international dissemination of these standards.

License fees are starting from 50% of the prices on commercial offerings of the EITCI Certification Programs by EITCI Accredited Licensees (partnering educational institutions or companies).

Another model of cooperation is offered by the EITCI Institute to IT experts and educators in the EU and abroad (both individual and legal persons). All of the EITCI Institute's certification curriculums are prepared in cooperation with academic and industrial experts or education provides in relevant areas to their specializations. EITCI Institute mainly cooperates with technical staff of international IT companies, as well as with acknowledged academics and educators. Basing on their expertise and educational experience, EITCI Institute is able to offer up to date EITC and EITCA curriculums in relevant domains of IT. Cooperating IT experts authoring EITC certification curriculums license the educational content of their authorship to EITCI Institute for a financial commission on each issued certification that is programmed accordingly to the curriculum. Some of the certification programmes are jointly coauthored by groups of IT experts and educators. The EITCI Institute's certification curriculums are offered by the EITCI Institute only after accreditation upon the EITCI Certification Commission panel evaluation and acceptance. In case of such cooperation the copyrights to the didactic content of the relevant EITC certification curriculum remain with the authors, who can decide to terminate the license agreement at any time in which case the relevant EITC certification is withdrawn from offering (while the current participants remain with access and the issued certificates remain valid). The didactic content is not required to be exclusive for EITC certification and can be published/commercialized elsewhere at the sole discretion of the author (the main offering is the EITC certification itself only adhering to the certain curriculum associated with a didactic content, which is not neccessary, also participants can take certification exams according to the curriculum without using the didactic content at all, e.g. by having this knowledge themselves already or by learning from other sources).

More details can be consulted at Cooperation section.

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Both the European IT Certification (EITC) and the European IT Certification Academy (EITCA) are Information Technologies professional certification programmes. They are not formal university or academic degree programmes, because such are required to adhere to the national higher educational frameworks in which academic degrees are legally regulated. EITC / EITCA Certification programmes are international, pan-European programmes, not implemented under a legal framework of any country legislating national university programmes and academic degrees. EITC / EITCA Certification programmes are accredited by the EITCI Institute, an international certification authority for these programmes, which issues the corresponding competencies attestment documents. Thus in terms of equivalence the EITC / EITCA Certifications could be compared to other professional or vocational IT Certifications which are not dependent on IT vendors (in contrast to popular vendor-centric IT certifications by e.g. Microsoft, Adobe, Google, etc.).

Thus completion of the EITCA Academy (or any of its substituent EITC programme) awards the participant with a professional IT certificate issued and confirmed by the EITCI Institute, formally attesting expertise in a field relevant to the awarded certificate.

This certificate however is not formally equivalent to an university diploma or academic degree. Despite the fact that the curriculum comprehensiveness of EITCA Academy may be compared in terms of curriculum and advancement to postgraduate studies, completing EITCA Academy does not grant a university diploma or an academic degree.

If there are any public or private regulations formally requiring a computer science academic degree (either Bachelor's degree or a Master of Science degree) and a relevant university diploma issued in a national system of higher education on the job position that one seeks to apply for, EITCA Academy Certificate along with all substituent EITC Certificates, even though constituting a comprehensive attestation of the holder's IT competencies, will not allow one to pass the academic degree obligatory criterium. However in many cases such formal requirement criteria are absent even for highly professional IT jobs or if present, may be reconsidered by an employer if the application is strong otherwise.

A lot of successful IT professionals with advanced careers in technology and business fields are not computer scientists by their university education and by the academic degrees. Instead their practical skills, interest in IT, factual expierence and vocational training, including professional certification programmes such as the European IT Certification, may constitute a sufficient attestment of IT competencies for an employer or a contractor if needed.

Therefore we encourage you to acquaint yourself with the details of the EITC / EITCA Certification programmes at the EITCA Academy.

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Addressing increasing numbers of inquiries regarding EITCA Academy and EITC Certificates official acknowledgement on the LinkedIn professional social network, EITCI Institute can announce that since early 2018 alumnis and EITC / EITCA Certification holders are now able to add their Certificates with official acknowledgment from EITCA Academy and LinkedIn along with the EITC / EITCA Certification standard logo, formal credentials and integrated digital proof of validity for an improved professional recognition.

EITCI Institute had partnered with LinkedIn social network in order to establish official recognition of the EITC / EITCA certification standards and of the EITCA Academy as a programme dedicated to dissemination and attesting of IT competencies internationally from Brussels, EU. Since May 2018 EITCA Academy and the EITC and EITCA Certifications are officially recognized by the LinkedIn professional networking platform and accordingly displayed.

EITCI Institute encourages all interested EITCA Academy alumnis and EITC / EITCA Certification holders to add their Certifications including validation links (individually obtained at https://eitci.org/validate at the bottom of the validation service page accessed after providing relevant Certificates data) containing individual Certificates secured ID information and the LinkedIn system will automatically recognize these Certificates as linked with EITCA Academy official credentials, logo and one-click electronic validation system.


The European Information Technologies Certification Academy seeks to promote digital literacy, skills and IT professionalism, as well as to counter digital exclusion by international dissemination of the EU based IT Certification scheme. Its educational offering is available for individuals worldwide fully on-line from Brussels under the governance of the European Information Technologies Certification Institute, a not-for-profit international association in a legal form of ASBL registred in Brussels, Belgium. The EITCI Institute brings together IT professionals from different career backgrounds from both the EU and from abroad networking in collaboration under further development and diseemination of the EITC / EITCA Certification framework with the EITCI Institute fulfills the role of an accreditation and certification authority for the programme.

More of the Frequently Asked Questions answered are to be found on the EITCA Academy - How It Works page.