UNISON is supporting the Get Online Week – 15-21 October – to help build members’ digital confidence and remove barriers that prevent them fully taking part in an increasingly technical world.
The union’s learning and organising team will be rolling out a digital champions network next year and is encouraging members to #try1thing online during the week as part of programme to support members who need to get the right skills for day-to-day digital life.
The week comes after the government launched an essential digital skills framework in response to figures showing that more than 11 million people in the UK lack full basic digital skills, including 5.4 million working adults. Some 4.3 million people have no basic digital skills at all.
As the use of digital technology in the workplace increases – using work email systems to communicate, moving to online payslips – we need to make sure that all workers feel digitally capable and digitally confident.
UNISON members across the UK have shared examples where, as workplaces become more digitised, employers are forgetting that some of their workers need both support to get online and the skills to navigate the digital world.
The Commission on Workers and Technology has found that “only 16% of employees with a trade union in their workplace think that their unions are taking steps to help ensure that new technologies improve their working life”.
That is why UNISON will be rolling out its digital champions network in the new year, working with branches to deliver peer-to-peer digital skills – building people’s digital confidence and helping them overcome barriers to getting digitally active.
For more information about UNISON’s digital champions programme, email Katie Shaw of the union’s learning and organising services at k.shaw@unison.co.uk
UK government essential digital skills framework
Commission on Workers and Technology
