Digital skills
To take part fully in today's society, everyone needs the skills to use the internet. Getting people online and providing them with the skills to do so is the key aim of Martha Lane Fox, the Government's Digital Champion, and BIS fully supports her work.
BIS and UK Online centres have developed an offer to provide people with no digital skills the basics they need to get online. Online Basics is a short, free course which will help you search and explore the internet, keep in touch with email, and stay safe online to boot. It also covers how to use a keyboard and mouse, and has a range of easy courses and useful resources to help you develop your skills. It can be found at www.go-on.co.uk and is designed so that it can be done at home, with the help of a friend or family member, in a UK Online Centre, or in any formal or informal learning environment.
Providers can find out more about how Online Basics is funded through the Adult Safeguarded Learning budget on the SFA website. Online Basics is also a fundable qualification on the QCF - this has been developed by e-skills UK and City and Guilds.
Online basics is now available across England, and almost 390,000 people have signed up to the programme during the last year. People who took Online Basics found it to be useful and easy to use (97%), whilst the majority used it to progress to further learning (60%).
