Meet Sarah Cooley, Sarah works at Magna Housing, a Dorset-based Housing Association. Sarah regularly works with Dorset residents who have never been online. Completing our free embedded digital champion (EDC) training has made a big difference to her, and she’d recommend it to anyone considering taking part.
“I completed the EDC training a few months ago, and I found it really informative. I’m pretty good digitally, but I didn’t really have the confidence when advising others.”
The programme run by Dorset Council is designed for anyone who works and advises members of the public regularly.
It aims to equip front-facing staff with even more skills to help them help their service users get online.
It might be that you’re like Sarah, or perhaps you aren’t confident online yourself, whatever your level of digital skill, this training is still a great option for you if you work with Dorset residents.
Being a tech whiz is not what is essential, you just need lots of patience and to be enthusiastic about helping people get online.
This is what Sarah has to say about how the training has impacted her work:
“There was a segment where we looked at spam, fraud and fake news and it’s been really helpful to be able to help others be safe online.”
Our training covers also covers accessibility features, password security, and more, as well as signposting you to lots of other great resources.
“I’ve got a customer who wanted to get online, and I was able to help her set up an email and Facebook, which she now uses to talk to her family,” Sarah recalled.
In Dorset, nearly a third of our residents are digitally excluded, meaning they have significant barriers to participating in the online world, so it’s great to hear our embedded digital champions are making a difference.
“The training happened online over a few sessions, which meant I could really take the time to digest it. There were lots of people from different places on the course, and I enjoyed meeting them all.” Sarah explained.
You can choose to either complete the course in one or two weeks, from the comfort of your own office or home, online.
So, what would Sarah say to anyone considering the training?
“I would say give this a go and invest the time in it. Even if you think you know everything you need to about computers, and the internet you can still learn more.”
Wherever you work in Dorset, if you regularly help people access your services, this course is for you.
You can be like Digital Norma, who is an embedded digital champion, meet her here:
If you’d like to be like Sarah and become one of over 750 other embedded digital champions, visit our website at Become an embedded digital champion – Dorset Council
