Sharing digital skills

One of the recommendations of the Scottish Government’s Digital Participation Charter is to encourage and support staff to become digital champions and share their digital skills with others.

In an earlier blog post I mentioned that SQA is committed to volunteering as a key part of our Corporate Social Responsibility strategy. Our employees are able to spend 21 hours a year on volunteering activities that help our communities and the development of digital skills in communities fits perfectly with themes of social inclusion, employability, human health and well being.

We are at a very exciting stage and about to roll out our first volunteering project that will see SQA’s digital volunteers working with community janitors from The Wheatley Group as part of their employability programme. Wheatley used a version of our digital skills survey to identify some of the areas their staff felt they could do with some help such as setting up online bank accounts and managing finances.

We are starting up with a small group – nine digital volunteers and nine janitors – initially based in Wheatley’s learning centre in Knightswood but with potential to extend to other centres in Lothians and beyond. The model is a cascade one: as janitors become more confident it is hoped they in turn can help tenants in sheltered housing, and other Wheatley employees – for example, care and environmental staff.

Volunteers and learners met for the first time yesterday and were very positive and enthusiastic about working together and learning from each other. We’ll keep you posted on developments.