Sarah Brown, Project Manager at Dorset Council tells us how their embedded digital champions programme is improving Essential Digital Skills in the council and beyond.
“We know some of our colleagues lack Essential Digital Skills, as well as other professionals and volunteers who work directly with people living in Dorset. We also know that the residents supported by Dorset Council and other organisations often struggle with digital tasks. For example, a member of our parking team might meet a resident who cannot download and use our parking app.
“Because we are an organisation with limited budget and resources, a peer support model is a really good option for us when it comes to addressing these challenges.
“We offer free digital training that’s based on the Essential Digital Skills Framework. It’s available to all Dorset Council employees, as well as anyone who works directly with residents in the county.”
“The training, which is online, typically takes 2.5 to 4 hours. Participants can choose to split the training over one to two weeks, depending on their level of digital confidence.
“Right now, we have 746 embedded digital champions at Dorset Council who have attended the training. And we have 187 digital champions embedded in other organisations across Dorset. It’s fair to say that most of these people are not IT wizards, but they have enough skills and knowledge to support a colleague or member of the public in the moment they are needed.
“After someone has completed the training, we are keen to provide opportunities to continue their learning. We run monthly digital coffee breaks in which we update our champions’ knowledge of new initiatives, have guest speakers such as Dorset Cyber Security Police, and provide opportunities to network.
“For the individual champions, they benefit from increased digital skills and become more digitally capable and confident. In some cases, their workloads decrease, due to the increased digital skills of the people they support. The champions’ increased digital skills may also lead to improved career opportunities.”
“At FutureDotNow’s Accelerate event, we found it inspirational to hear what other organisations are doing to upskill their workforces.”
“The benefits for Dorset Council and other organisations include greater productivity from their workforce, upskilled champions filling more advanced roles which require digital skills, and customers having more efficient and enjoyable experiences. Now, following the success of the embedded digital champions programme, we’re looking at what future projects we can embark on. And what’s really helping to inform this work is attending FutureDotNow events.
“At Accelerate, it was great to hear what the likes of Marks & Spencer and Travis Perkins are doing. While smaller organisations approached us, because they are interested in what we are doing.”
What’s your advice to others?
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Get senior leaders to back your programme. Without it, you’ll struggle to move forward.
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Recruit digital champions who are good communicators and motivated to help others.
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Gamification in a peer support programme, such as winning badges, can really encourage digital champions to do more.
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Collect data and feedback as part of your programme. The more you collect, the better your training will become.
How has FutureDotNow supported you?
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Put us in touch with Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which shared its expertise and essential digital training methods with us.
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By presenting evidence from FutureDotNow reports, we secure support for our programmes from senior leaders.
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Events such as Accelerate have provided us with opportunities to network and learn from other organisations.
Peer support is just one of the training models used by FutureDotNow coalition memebers to digitally upskill the workforce. To see a breakdown of other models and hear from the companies that use them, click below.