The online basic skills test for ICT covers the core skills that teachers need to fulfil their wider professional role in schools rather than the subject knowledge required for teaching. The test requires them to demonstrate the ability to make changes to slides in presentation software using a web browser, to use email and various functions within email, to use a text editor and email, to update a spreadsheet and to download resources from the internet and register for a newsletter. All trainee teachers are required to pass this online test in ICT competence before they can be awarded Qualified Teacher Status. The “Initial Teacher Training National Curriculum in the Use of ICT in Subject Teaching” which was introduced in teacher education institutes in 1998 in England consisted of over a hundred statements of competence in ICT, and extended to 17 pages of print, but it was found to be overly bureaucratic and difficult to assess in practice, hence the move to a more succinct formulation of the ICT competences which trainee teachers are required to possess (country report24 dedicated to England, last updated and revised in October 2007).