Attending joint trade union group meetings in Bournemouth resulted in SCP (Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists) setting up a free digital learning session for members of their union, and the local community. This was all held in their new union learning centre.

Karen Reed is a ULF (Union Learning Fund) Project Worker and ULR for the union and was at a meeting of the recently formed Bournemouth Joint Trade Union Learning Group. The meetings are held regularly in the CWU owned, Elstead Hotel.

Following sign posting at the meeting from a unionlearn Union Support Officer attending the meeting, Karen contacted local provider Silver Training who were offering free IT training. She then set up a session, and promoted locally to SCP members as well as other unions in the area. 

In the end the learner session drew in a cross section of SCP members from private practises and older learners from the local community including a retired teacher. 

The trainer from Silver Training could offer a wide range of short tasters to those attending, and asked learners what areas that they felt would be most useful - this resulted in the session focusing on the safe use of social media sites like Facebook and how to attach documents to emails.

Karen said that feedback from the session was generally positive, with everyone saying that they had learnt something new and the majority would be interested in more training if it became avalible. 

Karen said:

It was a lot of hard work in getting people to come along, but it was worth the effort. It was a good start and I’ll be looking at following this up with future sessions. Podiatrists do not often get opportunities for IT training, as most learning is focused on clinical practise. So this was a good chance for them to fill in skills gaps. 

I am surprised that people were not jumping at the chance to do a free training course, but I guess, if someone has poor computer skills they need a bit of  encouragement to take the steps to start learning – and sessions like this were very inclusive and hope fully word will spread."

Karen wants to encourage SCP members to sign up as Digital Champions and help colleagues around IT issues:

I am really keen to get digital champions signed up for the society. We have many members, especially those who qualified several years ago, who really want and need support to get to grips with the digital world.  We are looking to sign up digital champions in all areas of England and support them to support others."