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Could you become a Go ON UK digital champion? ; Go ON UKAdvertising Feature [Liverpool Echo (England)]
[July 31, 2014]

Could you become a Go ON UK digital champion? ; Go ON UKAdvertising Feature [Liverpool Echo (England)]


(Liverpool Echo (England) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TECHNOLOGY and the internet is all around us. While shopping, you can get cheaper deals online and you can even build a business from your laptop.

Despite this, there are still almost one million adults in the North West - a fifth of its population - who lack the basic online skills needed to send and receive email, use a search engine, browse the internet and complete online for ms.



Go ON UK, the cross-sector charity founded by Baroness Lane-Fox, wants to change that.

Go ON North West aims to help 250,000 people in the region build the digital skills to fully benefit from the web.


To achieve this target, Go ON UK is looking to recruit 5,000 digital champions in the North West - local people and organisations who can help others, as well as businesses, to improve their digital skills.

So, if you know someone who needs support, or simply want to get involved, go to digitalskills.com where you can find heaps of online tools and resources to help you get started as a Go ON digital champion.

Digitalskills.com is also a great opportunity to connect people wanting to share their digital skills and find out about projects and activities in your local area.

SARAH POOLE AS customer services manager at one of Argos's Liverpool stores, Sarah Poole is used to helping customers.

And as a digital champion for the company, Sarah is taking that help one step further, as she explains: "Although I'm not a programmer or anything like that, I have been able to share my knowledge of the right product for the right customer.

"On a couple of occasions I have even surprised myself with my experience of how to transfer data! "Shopping online is definitely the way forward. It is much easier for customers and much quicker, too. They get a wider choice of products and often get them quicker than they expect. I think it's brilliant what we are doing, and it's great to be a part of that journey.

"I didn't really know much about Go ON UK, but I think what they are doing is great. For Argos to be a part of it is just brilliant, and I am very proud to be part of the local initiative and help not only our customers but our local community." Sarah is a prime example of how with hard work and determination anyone can succeed. She started out as a Christmas temp at Argos's Birkenhead store more than 10 years ago and has now worked her way up to the job of customer services manager at the new Liverpool ONE store - a role she is extremely excited about.

KIRSTY WOO KIRSTY Woo recognises the importance of community in her role as counter clerk at Dingle Crown Post Office in south Liverpool.

Dingle has always had a strong sense of community and so she often deals with people face to face who need help getting online.

She said: "As well as being a counter clerk, I am also the home phone and broadband specialist for this branch, so a lot of my work involves knowing about the products and showing people how to get the best out of them.

"Being at the heart of the community, we are often the first port of call and for many older people they don't have anyone else to help them when it comes to understanding modern technology." Kirsty finds it really rewarding helping some of her older customers . She said: "I helped an older lady recently whose family all live abroad. She didn't realise that she can get free phone calls through the internet, and she is made up because she can now keep in touch with her family much more." Kirsty has even helped her nan get online, who she says uses the internet regularly to check her Irish lottery numbers.

MELANIE ASKEW LLOYDS Bank and the Halifax, part of Lloyds Banking Group and a proud founder of Go ON UK, have pledged to sign up at least 2,000 staff members to help improve the lack of digital skills in the North West.

Digital champion Melanie Askew is a business performance manager for Lloyds Bank, based in the organisation's credit operations department in Chester.

She has pledged to help the bank's customers as well as her mother.

Melanie explained: "My mum, Val, is now in her 70s and has never been very good with any form of technology, including computers or her mobile phone, which is often switched off.

"She never gets a look-in to use my dad's iPad as he is obsessed with it being either low on battery or she cannot use it because it is on charge.

"I, therefore, decided to buy her, her own iPad for Christmas. She was so excited and eager to start using it and I pledged to help my mum to become more digitally aware.

"She now enjoys looking through the Next directory, playing solitaire, viewing e-mails and browsing the internet for holidays, recipes and gardening articles. This has opened up a new world for her and enables her to make more informed decisions with the information she sees online.

"My next task is to convince her to register herself on Facebook so she can keep in touch with her family and friends and view photos or have a Skype conversation without needing to ask my dad!" CATHERINE BIRTWISTLE AS office and publicity manager for the Ribble Rivers Trust, Catherine Birtwistle knows more than most about the importance of digital technology.

She won the 2013 TalkTalk Digital Heroes Award for her work in helping to raise the profile of the importance of maintaining and improving our river environment.

She explained: "We erected interpretation boards along the Ribble Way to inform walkers about the rivers. This included details about the wildlife that lives along riverbanks and underwater, issues that adversely affect the health of rivers such as pollution and invasive species, and some of the work we've done to improve rivers such as fish passes and habit creation.

"This is a lot of information to fit on one board, so we have harnessed the power of QR codes which let people access this information on the move and choose what they want to learn more about.

"Digital technology is another route to reach people and help them understand more about the environment they live in, and saves printing thousands of leaflets! "The public having a better understanding of rivers and the environment in general would help to solve a lot of problems, and what better way to achieve that than in promoting our message online?" The TalkTalk Digital Heroes Awards is a unique countrywide scheme that recognises inspirational people who are using technology to benefit their local community and bring about positive social change. Visit digitalheroes.talktalk.co.uk for more information.

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