Bridging the gap

Bridging the gap 

There have been lots of initiatives to bridge the gap sponsored by the national government, local government, private industry, and charities. In this post I am going to evaluate them to give a flavour of the breadth and range of initiatives in this area in the UK.  

UK online 

UK online was started in 2001 and funded by the government as a project to give computer access to people in the community and to help them develop ICT skills so that they can be employable. Currently they have over 6000 UK online centres located in schools,libraries and community centres. They have a network of 3,800 community based UK online centres across England, provide products on out ww.learnmyway.com website, run marketing campaigns, offer training and project opportunities and administer grant funding to help their centres help more people make the most of online life. 

Facts about UK online 

• 3,800 partner centres
• UK online centres in 84% of deprived wards
• One-third of our customers have no formal qualifications
• Over 7 in 10 users are socially excluded
• Over 50% receive some state benefit
• Around a quarter earn less than £10k a year
• 50% of users don't own their own home and 23% live in social housing
• 25% are responsible for children
• One-third of users consider themselves to have a disability or mental health issues
• 29% are unemployed and 33% are retired.
• One-quarter of centre users are from non-British ethnic backgrounds
• 90% of visitors access online government services in a UK online centre
• 60% of customers progress to take up further education, Information, Advice and Guidance opportunities, volunteering placements or employment
• 96% of people who use the centres rate the service as good to excellent

Community Access to Lifelong Learning (CALL)

CALL is a huge programme that was heavily invested with 200 million capital investment to cover development and running costs . These centers were aimed at providing access to technology and skills development for businesses and the general public. The voluntary sector was heavily involved in establishing and running these centers.  Furthermore this programme enables libraries, schools and other lifelong learning institutions to become connected with the internet and provide access to all groups within society, with the hope of providing particular benefits to socially excluded people who otherwise has less access to online learning opportunities.

Learning is likely to be ever more important to the UK’s prosperity.  The types of jobs we are doing are changing, as are the skills we need to do them, and access to learning will help people to meet the rapid changes required. With that into account CALL aims to improve "access to lifelong learning for adults through the use of ICT, with a particular focus on socially excluded adults and those in disadvantaged communities" and  "further develop the creation of community-based content to encourage people to use ICT and encourage them into lifelong learning"