Hear from Billy about how the development of his Essential Digital Skills has led to career progression and a new confidence.
When I joined Barclays as a cashier, I was 21. I felt I should have had very good digital knowledge and skills at the time, but that wasn’t the case.
I’d studied IT at school, and I’d been a team leader at well-known bakery brand for a couple of years but the only digital area of my role was helping customers with the brand’s app.
I also had a personal smartphone and other tech as you’d expect but I’d never developed any real skills around using them.
In my new role at Barclays, digital felt like a whole new world. I didn’t feel particularly confident using it and I think I was initially quite quiet at work because of this.
Over the past four years I’ve gradually built up my digital skills through our internal digital skills platform.
You can do a whole range of training modules, such as learning about different devices, to get badges.
“I’ve increased my confidence and pushing myself to learn more. This has made a big difference at work and in my personal life.”
I’ve also had excellent support from our Digital Eagles and started to upskill myself through our external platform, Digital Wings. Something I mainly do out of work hours, to help with my personal development.
Now I’m a customer care leader and a digital lead at Barclays. When it comes to digital I really feel I’ve grown so much and become really passionate about supporting others. My current role is all about helping my colleagues in Northumberland and Durham support other people digitally.
I’m also working on initiatives to support Barclays colleagues working in the community to help people face-to-face with basic digital skills, as well as online banking and the Barclays app.
Personally, I’ve increased my confidence and I’m always pushing myself to learn more. For me, this has made a big difference at work and in my personal life.
As with many of us, I have quite a few older relatives that I’ve now gone on to support digitally. I enjoy helping them with things like video calls and helping my gran set up online shopping. It’s really rewarding to be able to help people with small changes, that make a huge difference to their lives.
Billy Carrick is a Customer Care Leader and Digital Lead with Barclays.
Billy’s story first appeared in ‘The UK workforce digital skills gap: Why closing it matters and a roadmap for action’.
Barclays are a signatory of the Workforce Digital Skills Charter, committing to concerted and focused collective action to close the essential digital skills gap in the UK workforce. Find out more and join them here.
