Two courses were delivered at Denton Burn, City and East End Libraries and another at West End Library. 44 participants, living local to the venues, completed the courses, and all were gifted a new tablet and data to continue their digital journey.
Working in partnership with Work and Thrive Central and West, referrals of participants, many of whom were already on supported employment programmes, came from the Work and Thrive network partners across the City including, Reviving the Heart of the West End (RHWE), DWP, NHS (social prescribers), Newcastle Futures, Newcastle Carers, Newcastle Foodbanks and UC Digital Support Services.
During the 8 weeks the participants signed up to online platforms that they could continue to access in the future. These included, Learn My Way (online learning resource), BorrowBox (free e books, magazines and newspapers), NCC My Account, Emails, Play Store, You Tube and WhatsApp. They also set up accounts and notifications with North East Jobs and NHS Jobs.
Special guest speakers who attended included, Money Wise Credit Union (ethical saving and borrowing), EPIC (NCC Empowering People in Communities initiative), NHS Researchers (NHS jobs portal end user experience feedback), Economic Crime Protect Officers from the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit (all types of fraud and scams), the Reading for Wellbeing Team, and UC and Council Tax digital support service. Each person also received an employability journey audit by a Work and Thrive colleague to ensure they were receiving all the support needed to help them into further training or employment.
Over 80% of the participants went on to further accredited digital skills learning programmes, such as the Digital Skills for Work qualification delivered by Newcastle City Learning.
These courses saw a varied range of ages, one of the oldest participants, who had never even used a smart phone before and had no email experience, built up his confidence to a level where he applied for a job, got an interview and was actually offered the job, something that he said he would never have been able to do without being on the course. One of the youngest, referred to us by the NCC Young Persons Support and Progression Team, although having social anxiety issues, managed by the end of the course to travel independently, take part and help other people in the class and now has a volunteer position on the Get Online Newcastle Team, which will help him gain more confidence and experience to bring him nearer to the job market.
Chris Ord, Work and Thrive Newcastle Partnership Co-ordinator, said: "Many of the people we support at Work and Thrive find digital a real challenge. Everything is done online these days, so if you’re not confident or competent with digital technology finding a job can be a real struggle.
"The programmes delivered by Get Online Newcastle are an invaluable part of our local offer, complementing our employment support partners, building customer confidence, and helping our residents find jobs more quickly and effectively."