A contract with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for a digital inclusion programme has been won by the Tinder Foundation.
The Future Digital Inclusion programme is part of the government’s plan to support people in the hardest to reach communities in England, enabling them to develop online skills and access government services and also to benefit from the opportunities the internet can provide.
The Tinder Foundation will support 200,000 people in 2015 to gain digital skills through its established network of UK online centres. Hundreds of grassroots organisations will be directly grant funded, with thousands of others able to access the online resources and network support that form part of the programme.
The Tinder Foundation is targeting people who are unemployed, on a low income or in low-skilled jobs, people with a disability or learning difficulty, people in rural areas and people who are socially excluded.
Learners will be supported through the Tinder Foundation’s learning platform, Learn My Way, which currently helps over 10,000 learners each month to gain web skills such as email, job searching and transacting. The contract will support 2,000 people to go on to achieve a City & Guilds certificate in Basic Online Skills. Over 750 Digital Champion volunteers will be trained to support the programme’s delivery in local communities.
Helen Milner, chief executive, Tinder Foundation said, “This digital inclusion programme is a huge commitment from the government to support the most digitally-excluded people to improve their life chances, find work and learn more about the things that interest them. With more and more government services moving online, it is vital the government commits to supporting those without basic online skills to ensure no-one is left behind.”
