POA Learning has been helping Yvonne Goodwin develop digital skills and confidence when using a computer.

Yvonne is a farmer and member of the Eastchurch community. Like many older learners she has never had confidence when using computers, describing herself, quite simply, as “not very good”. In October last year, she saw an advertisement for a computer class being run by POA Learning at her local village hall. She felt that it would provide a good opportunity to improve her confidence when using a computer and wanted to learn some specific skills such as sending emails with attachments. 

Yvonne started by completing the Online Basics modules available on Learn My Way. The group, facilitated by Gareth Williams of POA Learning, are encouraged to work at their own pace without getting overwhelmed with learning too many things at once, focusing on one new skill at a time. Yvonne took her time to go through the online modules as many times as she needed, to ensure that she fully understood the content of the course and was able to apply these new skills using her own computer (which she brings to class). 

Feeling confident that she had understood everything within the Online Basics course, she started to progress onto more challenging things which she would be able to use in her everyday life. 

After completing the Learn My Way course, I felt a lot more confident when moving emails and files around and finding lost photos stored on my computer."

Her confidence has improved greatly, and she can now use her computer to do a number of things, such as access YouTube and Wikipedia, use Skype to video call friends and download software from the internet. Although she found learning new things really useful, one of her favourite aspects of the computer class was the social side of it.

The class gets me out and I’ve really enjoyed meeting new people who have the same difficulties with computers as me."

However, it has not all been straightforward, as Yvonne points out:

Changing my laptop to Windows 10 has been very challenging; it’s not what I’m used to!"

Yvonne continues to attend the class, held every Wednesday morning at the Eastchurch Community Hub in Eastchurch, Sheppey, and is looking forward to learning more and more. She has also encouraged other locals struggling with IT to attend as she feels the way the classes are delivered are ideal for people with low confidence in IT.

I would definitely recommend the class to other people as it is delivered in a language that can be understood by all; there is no technical jargon which is ideal!"