Delivering a Digital Wales

“We need to equip our citizens to be digital citizens” – Carwyn Jones, the First Minister of Wales

The Welsh Assembly Government recently announced its strategy to deliver a Digital Wales; addressing five key priority areas: the economy, public services, inclusion, skills and infrastructure, it aims to ensure everyone can take advantage of digital technologies to improve their quality of life.

 

The strategy highlighted that without the skills to go online, those who are financially and socially excluded are likely to become more so; enabling individuals to become ‘digital citizens’ is becoming as important as providing the skills to be able to read and write.

 

34%, (approximately 785,000 adults) in Wales are classed as ‘digitally excluded’ and less than a quarter use online public services.  The strategy builds on a huge amount of activity to bring Welsh citizens online, such as ‘Digital Xmas’, an event run by large Cardiff social landlord Taff Housing.

 

In Cardiff, an estimated 52,000 adults have never been online.  Elaine Ballard, chief executive of Taff, which has 1,200 homes across the city, says that lack of access to technology compounds the social and financial problems many local residents face.  Technology, she says, is “really important to help people get on in life,”

 

The scheme comprises of Internet taster sessions as well as free Wi-Fi and cheap starter packages using refurbished government computers.

 

Digital Xmas, which Taff promoted via local press and radio and word-of-mouth, is typical of many first-step IT courses: some tenants strode in purposefully, keen to play with iPads, digital cameras, smartphones or to run through Online Basics, while friendly staff, mulled wine and mince pies provided reassurance for more hesitant first-timers.

 

George, in his sixties, is a Flamenco fan who has just bought his first computer.  He came in to get tips on how to research his hobby and get to grips with a keyboard.  He says learning how to use a computer has brought him into the modern world.

 

Tenant Fanwell, 64, an enthusiastic member of several Taff community groups such as the Tenants and Residents Association and the Garden Club, was sitting in on a Skype session so he could learn how to chat with his daughter who lives in America.  He said simply that “if you can’t send an email you are not in the world today.”

 

• Delivering a Digital Wales – read the Welsh Assembly Government’s outline framework for action.