Free training and support to help people in West Cumbria get digital skills and confidence, and thrive in a digital world.
How does it work?
Digital skills are essential for almost everything these days, from applying for jobs to paying for parking. But almost a third of us have "low" or "very low" digital skills and are missing out.
We provide free training and support to local community organisations wherever they are on their digital journey to:
- help everyone in the organisation get their heads round digital inclusion, what it is and why it matters.
- train staff and/ or volunteers to become Champions who help people learn digital skills
- provide tools and support to set up Champion projects.
- help staff connect with other organisations and opportunitie,s and embed digital inclusion across all their services and thinking.
What's in it for your organisation?
Let's Get Digital, West Cumbria is completely free and provides:
- Free places on the Inspire training course which helps staff, volunteers and trustees understand what digital inclusion is and why it matters, delivered in a single training session.
- Free membership of the Digital Champions Network, to train staff or volunteers as Digital Champions who help others with digital skills.
- A dedicated, expert co-ordinator who knows the local area and issues.
- Ongoing project support no matter what stage you're at in your project.
- Face-to-face events, networking and a friendly community of practice for Champions and Managers to share ideas and challenges.
It's designed to be adaptable. We'll support you to create a sustainable, flexible programme that you control with goals you decide. It's built on resources and people you already have in your organisation and can be targeted to help whoever you want to help get motivation, confidence and skills.
Who can apply?
Community organisations and groups in West Cumbria. You don't need to be a digitally focused but you do need to want to help people with digital skills. You can be just starting out, or already have some schemes under way.
We don't require you to do complicated reporting or reach hard targets. But you need to make a commitment to use the training places and engage with us about how things are going.
These are some of the organisations already involved (logos on the left) and include charities, libraries, housing associations and business groups.
The champions training is helpful, bitesized and relevant. In libraries, where we are limited for capacity it is good to be able to access it when we can. We have given all staff in branch libraries access so they can build up their confidence and knowledge and give day to day support for customers. It is working!
Catherine Clark
Cumberland Libraries
Free training
We cover all the costs for staff and/ or volunteers to access our award winning digital training platforms, as well as on-going project support.
Interested?
Fill in the form below and Sarah, the Project Lead will be in touch. If after talking, you decide it's not for you, there's no obligation to continue.
Cumbria Digital Inclusion Network
Sarah started this to bring together organisations who are keen to co-ordinate and amplify digital inclusion activity across Cumbria. Everyone is welcome, you don't have to be part of Let's Get Digital, or involved in Champions projects. You can find out all about it here. If you’d like to come, please contact Sarah direct.
If you're looking for digital skills sessions in the area, you can find them on this interactive map.
Our Let's Get Digital programmes are made possible by the generous sponsorship of Capgemini, through their social value commitments. As a global technology consultancy, they recognise they have a responsibility to make sure no-one gets left behind as world gets more digital. We've been working with them for over 5 years and there's more here about our work together on a range of programmes to combat digital exclusion.
Impact Report
At the end of the first year, we looked in detail at how the first year of LGD,WC had gone, before rolling it out elsewhere.
How does it help?
A case study on the transformative effect of the programme on one charity's work as part of a sister project LGD, Durham.
