Making a digital difference all over Scotland

Since February 2016 the One Digital team has been on tour, bringing digital participation to third sector organisations, staff and volunteers. With the help of 32 local anchor organisations across Scotland we have delivered sessions from Dumfries to Inverness, and on to Stornoway, Kirkwall and Lerwick. Map of One Digital Training Between February and June, 50 sessions were delivered to over 260 third sector organisations, with a total of more than 400 people attending.   Our Making Digital Work training was designed to help organisations do more with digital. Only 19% of those who attended said they were able to carry out all core basic digital skill tasks before they came. That’s just over 50 organisations that could:  

• Manage Information online e.g. use Funding Scotland or store information about donors securely
• Communicate online e.g. send emails, use MailChimp, Hootsuite or Facebook
• Carry out online transactions, e.g. use online banking and receive online donations
• Create something digital e.g. a profile on Good HQ or use Canva
• Use the internet to problem-solve e.g. use Google Analytics to update a website, YouTube Tutorials or sign-up to the Digital Participation Charter

Our Making Digital Everyday training was designed to help get end-users online. Of the individuals in attendance, 47% had all five basic digital skills. This means they could search for deals on comparison websites like U-Switch, post on forums using Snapchat or Twitter, book holidays online, Google a solution to a problem, and create and share a text document, such as CV. We were really pleased with the feedback we received, as 90% of participants stated they would recommend One Digital to others, and a whopping 93% all our attendees said they were either satisfied or very satisfied. For me it has also been very satisfying to hear what participants said about the training:

“Excellent training, I’ve learnt so much… thank you.”

“It was really useful to have the opportunity to learn, share and think about how we can support each other and all reach more people.”

“Excellent starting point to take ownership and get started with my digital inclusion project”

“The informal environment made it easy for people to interact, ask questions, and share information. Feeling inspired!”

We also heard our trainees say their confidence grew in using social media, and as a result organisations felt they could reach wider audiences and make targeted posts. New ideas were generated and shared, information was exchanged, questions were answered, solutions were found, plans were made and people were inspired. Not a bad result, I’d say. To hear about what we’re doing next check out this blog by my colleague Eilidh.