Thus for the sixth year in a row, the City of Rijeka organised free IT courses intended for pensioners, housewives over 50, retired Homeland war veterans and persons with special needs. So far more than 2,250 participants have completed training, including the course takers whom certificates have just been awarded. All of them expressed their satisfaction both with the contents and the manner they were presented, as well as the possibilities to further use the services available on the web-site of the City of Rijeka.

The certificates were awarded to course takers who completed the courses in two educational cycles carried out during 2011, thus in June, 130 Rijeka citizens completed advanced IT courses, while in December 66 course takers completed the basic course, and 27 course takers the advanced course. Rijeka mayor Vojko Obersnel awarded a diploma to Aleksandar Petrović as the oldest course taker.

Since 2010 this programme has been included in the project titled EGOV4U. The City of Rijeka has joined this project together with partners from Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland and Malta, aiming to enhance, by means of education, the availability of the Internet and IT equipment, decrease social exclusion in the society and enable better access to city services via the Internet.

As informed by Tatjana Perše, project manager, by joining this project the City of Rijeka had improved the project relating to free IT courses. Namely, the course takers, and particularly those attending advanced courses, are mainly members of clubs for the elderly citizens, associations of third agers and war veterans who will receive IT equipment within the project EGOV4U. In this way, the persons who were educated owing to free IT courses will help elderly members in acquiring basic IT literacy, thus achieving the main project goal: reduction of social exclusion in the society.