Helping others to improve their basic digital skills

With learning any new digital skill, consider who it is you are helping, and their needs. You may be in a position to support others to get online.

Transferable digital skills

There are lots of digital skills that you learn through different online experiences, and many are transferable to different tasks. The ability to fill out online forms, create accounts and navigate websites are used for many different online services.

By finding inspiring digital activities, we can make learning basic digital skills a more meaningful experience for someone going online for the first time. Explore hobbies, interests and activities that provide positive experiences. As well as this, these opportunities encourage individuals to go online and apply their basic digital skills in different ways.

Think about a time when someone has helped you to do something, how did it make you feel? First time internet users need support and encouragement. Basic digital skills require time and opportunities to learn.

Use hobbies and interests as a hook and a means to encouraging longer-term digital engagement. You can then signpost individuals to further support or community based options for developing their digital skills.

Example transferable digital skills

Using the UK Government's essential digital skills framework, we can unpick some generally used transferable digital skills. There are however many examples of digital skills for a variety of different activities.

Foundation digital skills

Foundation digital skills are the skills required to use a device effectively, or to understand digital concepts, like an app or an internet browser, and how to interact with them. Use interactive features such as games to make the experience more enjoyable. But also understand that familiarity with a device’s features can transfer to different devices, for example the process of connecting to WIFI is similar across all devices.

Sometimes low confidence internet users are unaware of their digital skills and how it relates to different digital tasks. It’s good to draw on relatable examples to build confidence:

• if you can send a text message, you can use WhatsApp
• if you can signup to Facebook, you can signup to other accounts
• if you can watch Netflix, you can also use YouTube or iPlayer
• if you can search on Google, you can also search online shops

Accessibility features, such as screen readers, are built into mobile devices at no extra cost. Familiarity with accessibility features, and how to adjust them, are important for helping someone use a device for the very first time. Many accessibility features are available on different devices.

AbilityNet have useful guidance on accessibility for digital devices.

There are guides provided online for different devices. You can find specific device support by using a search engine to search for key words such as your device’s model and accessibility:

• Android accessibility guidance
• Apple accessibility guidance
• Windows accessibility guidance
• Chromebook accessibility guidance

Features that support people to be safe and legal online are an essential part of online services, apps and websites. This includes secure account creation by using a secure password and 2-factor authentication. These different safety elements are important, but can be overwhelming for low confidence or first time internet users.

Utilise existing learning opportunities to support the development of these skills:

Learn My Way

Learn My Way is a website created by the Good Things Foundation that provides free short learning courses to help you develop your basic digital skills. They have bite-sized topics on being safe and legal online which are suitable for beginners that have no or low digital skills.

Get Safe Online

Get Safe Online is a webpage offering advice on being safe and legal online, endorsed by many organisations involved in preventing cybercrime.

Using a search engine is transferable to many different digital skills. For example, you may need to search for apps on your tablet, or use a keyword search on a specific website. Often, a person’s first use of a search engine will be using popular options such as Google or Bing.

A search engine allows you to:

• identify different websites
• problem solve
• get directions and service information

Often, searching for hobbies, interests and games are useful starting options to find inspiration for learning to use search engines for the first time. You could ask where someone has been to, or would like to go, in the world, and a search engine could identify websites, videos and images.

Many apps, websites and services require you to sign up to them using an online form. Develop confidence to do this by using a practise webform for learners.

Our guide provides some useful starting points for talking about transferable digital skills. Even just inspiring someone to take an interest in using digital devices more often is a great start.

There are many support networks out there that you can utilise to embed digital inclusion for the longer term. Together, we can make sustainable change and increase digital inclusion.

MoneyHelper joins up money and pensions guidance to make it quicker and easier to find the right help. MoneyHelper brings together the support and services of 3 government-backed financial guidance providers: the Money Advice Service, the Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise.

From the MoneyHelper website’s home page, you can navigate to several different topics for further guidance, from guidance for different benefits and everyday money, through to specific tools for pensions or supporting family life.

Online guides

If you support others, MoneyHelpers has an online service that provides up-to-date guidance documents, whether you are an individual, an organisation or commercial business. You can get in touch with them to discover accessible guide options.

Tools and calculators

The MoneyHelper website has a useful online tools and calculators landing page, that includes several useful categories for older people.

Tools and calculators that are useful starting points for discussions about finances include:

• Pensions calculator
• Find out your pension type
• Find a retirement adviser
• Living on a squeezed income
• Bill prioritiser

Pension Wise

Pension Wise is a government service from MoneyHelper that offers free, impartial guidance to over 50s about their defined contribution pension options. No matter how large or small your pension pot may be.

You will get specialist pension guidance which usually takes up to an hour over the phone or local to you.

Who can Pension Wise help?

• If you are aged 50 or over.
• Want to make sense of your options.
• Have a personal or workplace defined contribution pension.