Article ICT skills evaluation of faculty members in Kuwait; Preliminary findings Hanadi Buarki College of Basic Education, Kuwait Abstract This research aimed to examine the current information and communication technology (ICT) skills of faculty members at the College of Basic Education, Kuwait, to find out their ICT skills level and obtain an understand- ing of their training needs. A survey of 187 faculty members revealed findings on Internet access, ICT teaching courses, level of ICT skills, English language proficiency, ICT use, availability of ICT resources and ICT skills. This study recommends that faculty members update their ICT skills and assign students to use ICT, while their employer should provide suitable Internet infrastructure and professional development courses based on a training plan. Research has generated an ICT-skilled faculty member list that employers would use to check faculty members’ skills before employing them. Other institutions can make use of this research as a guide to evaluating their faculty members’ ICT skills. Keywords ICT skills, college faculty, academics, professional development, Kuwait Submitted: 24 June, 2014; Accepted: 29 December, 2014. Faculty at the College of Basic Education possesses a good level of ICT skills and English proficiency. Introduction The Kuwait government has been promoting ICT education so that it can be adopted in schools and higher education. Schools have been equipped with computer labs, ICT curricula and access to the Internet. Computer literacy classes have been set up around the country to provide ICT training for students. The International Computer Driving License (ICDL) and the Cambridge Information Technology (CIT) certif- icate are considered as the standard qualifications of ICT skills in Kuwait (United Nations, 2007). The College of Basic Education The College of Basic Education is one of the two main teacher-training institutions in Kuwait; the other is the College of Education at Kuwait University. The College of Basic Education is maintained under the supervision of the Public Authority for Applied Edu- cation and Training (PAAET). The college offers aca- demic and pedagogical 4-year training programs to its graduates leading to a bachelor degree. Its faculty members hold PhDs, masters’ and bachelors’ degrees from different disciplines and worldwide institutions (International Bureau of Education, 2010/11). Addi- tionally, faculty members are expected to have ICT skills in line with those needed by the job market; these skill levels are increasing daily. ICT skills evaluation at the College of Basic Education As part of the faculty members’ performance evalua- tion, students evaluate the faculty’s teaching at the College of Basic Education. This helps in measuring faculty member teaching quality and in getting them promoted. However, this assessment does not mea- sure the ICT skills of faculty members. Corresponding author: Dr Hanadi Buarki, Department of Information Science, College of Basic Education, Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Ardeya, Kuwait. Email: hj.buarki@paaet.edu.kw Information Development 2016, Vol. 32(4) 777–798 ª The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0266666914568796 idv.sagepub.com by guest on August 1, 2016 idv.sagepub.com Downloaded from