New digital skills policy must engage most excluded people
Welcoming the Government’s announcement today to make basic digital skills training free for adults, Tinder Foundation chief executive Helen Milner stresses the need to “seize the opportunity” and help society’s most excluded.
I welcome today’s announcement by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Karen Bradley, that, in an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill, all adults in the UK who need basic digital skills training will receive it.
There are 12.6 million people in the UK who don’t have basic digital skills, and the reasons for this are complex. Many lack literacy skills, have been put off formal education in the past, or just don’t see how digital technology is relevant to them. But I’m a strong believer that everybody should have the opportunity to succeed, no matter what their background, and we can only achieve this by prioritising those who are most excluded.
For these reasons, I hope both DCMS and DfE will seize the opportunity to put those who are most socially excluded at the very heart of this new policy. This means working with a wide range of community-based organisations, not just further education colleges, in order to reach, inspire and support the most excluded and vulnerable adults who have the most to gain.
For the new universal right to free basic digital skills to be a success - and to reach those who most need it - learning has to be put right at the heart of the community. The organisations within the UK online centres network (both community organisations and libraries) are experts at breaking down the complex barriers people without digital skills are experiencing, at helping to find the hook that will motivate people, and of personalising learning so it leads to long term, positive outcomes. They’ve got a key role to play.
Online learning will also be key. It can drive up quality, while ensuring user focus, excellence, and the right content for the right outcomes. Online learning can also drive down costs as it can be scaled easily and quickly. It can empower people to choose to help themselves to improve their basic digital skills in the comfort of their own home. And it can provide a universal curriculum for hyperlocal community-based providers who can blend it with great, personalised, informal and local support. The Learn My Way website, which we have just relaunched, is a great way of doing this. Driving up quality and driving down costs has to be a good thing, I think Learn My Way should be central to any new work in this area.
Tinder Foundation, which manages the 5,000 strong UK online centres network, looks forward to being involved in the development of the new programme.
Today’s announcement is a significant one - and I really hope that government will look outside of the more formal adult learning institutions to drive forward a policy that will have real impact. I’m looking forward to hearing more and seeing this policy enshrined in the digital economy bill soon.
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