Celebrating the growth of Scotland's Digital Participation Charter

Over the past two years the Scotland's Digital Participation Charter has been gaining momentum across Scotland.  A hugely diverse range of organisations want to help people to get online and develop the basic digital skills required for so much of modern life. Those signing up to the Charter are asked to make five simple commitments to supporting the development of basic digital skills:

• Invest – in staff and volunteers
• Empower – staff and volunteers to help others
• Contribute – practical support for projects
• Collaborate – co-ordinate our efforts
• Adopt a common language

We've found that these five key commitments are easy to understand and practically achievable for organisations of all forms across the public, private and third sectors. No matter how large or small, everyone has the opportunity to play their part. The Bank of Scotland recently became the 200^th Charter signatory.  Along with Alyson Mitchell (Head of Digital Participation at Scottish Government), I met Annette Barnes, Managing Director of Bank of Scotland as she signed the Charter.  Annette said “signing the Digital Participation Charter reinforces our commitment to helping individuals, businesses and charities to get the most out of our increasingly digital society. By working together, we can make a real difference in the communities that we serve.” We are delighted that Bank of Scotland has demonstrated their commitment to improving basic digital skills across Scotland and are backing this up by volunteering staff time to help individuals and organisations across Scotland. Through our programme of activity we are pushing digital participation up the agenda, and accelerating the work being led by charities and community groups across Scotland.  There are staff members all across Scotland who are currently being trained to pass on basic digital skills. Together, we can help them to target their help and support in ways which will really make a difference.