To mark the beginning of ‘Get Online Week!’ Eastleigh College joined up with VIVID as part of a campaign to help combat digital and social exclusion across the UK. We hosted free, face to face and socially distanced, sessions for VIVID customers.
On a mission to improve the digital skills of as many people as possible
As digital skills are now an expected part of daily life, VIVID, a leading provider of affordable homes and housing-related services, has been running free courses to help people improve their digital skills in partnership with the Good Things Foundation.
Eastleigh College understands the need to help improve the digital wellbeing of the millions of people in the UK who are missing out. Our new part-time course is designed to help people with little or no previous digital skills to use smart phones, tablets or computers.
The taster day
Jan Waterman, VIVID’s Community Development and Digital Officer explains: “As we are not able to deliver our usual face to face mentoring service from Hampshire Libraries at the moment, when I heard that Eastleigh College could help deliver a taster of their new qualification ‘Essential Digital Skills’, I thought this would be ideal for those customers who are struggling to learn without the face to face delivery. The college is very well set up with social distancing and we all felt very safe in the surroundings.”
Two taster sessions were provided for VIVID customers, with tablets provided by VIVID. Attendee Chrissy said: “The session was inspiring and I’ve learnt so much, I feel so much happier using a tablet now”. Jackie, another attendee, said: “This has been so much better than other courses I have attended, I really feel like I have learnt something and have only been here for two hours!”
The hands on taster sessions were delivered by Evelyn Thomson, one of the team of passionate and industry-experienced information, communication and technology (ICT) teachers at Eastleigh College.
New digital courses launched in 2020
The new part-time course ‘Essential Digital Skills’ will run as daytime and evening classes over 10-15 weeks depending on the on venue and no previous experience or knowledge is needed. For further information about the course click here.
Earlier this year Eastleigh College introduced a range of professional online courses for adults (in employment or who are currently unemployed) who wish to take their first professional qualification. The courses are in subjects such as dementia care, warehousing and data protection. To see all the online learning Level 2 NCFE courses and find out if you can apply for funding to pay for the course, click here.
