The TEL Team were approached by the university’s Childhood, Social Work & Social Care department to write and deliver a course aimed at improving the digital literacies of West Sussex Partners in Care staff, funded by the Support Workforce Health & Social Care Integration Innovation fund.
The Fund was set up to address the key challenges of the HEE Career Progression Programme (‘the Programme’) and the associated Talent for Care and Widening Participation strategies. Talent for Care focuses on supporting the training and development of the support workforce under three strands:
- Get In – Opportunities for people to start their career in a support role
- Get On – Supporting people to be the best they can be in the job they do
- Go Further – Providing opportunities for career progression, including into registered professions
Following the success of our own 25 topic in-house Developing Digital Literacies course for staff, a four day course was written covering 7 key topics appropriate for their requirements:
- Introduction to the digital world (Digital residents, getting the most out of digital devices, file management, downloading apps, mobile data/wifi…)
- Google Guru (Bowsers and search engines, search techniques, internet safety, Google Earth, street view…)
- Effective email (Organising your emails, email etiquette, address book, signatures, attachments, identifying spam…)
- Assistive technologies (What’s available for free, what are some of our users needs?)
- Winning with Word (How to use word processing software and produce high quality documentation)
- Social Networking (understanding your digital footprint, cyberbullying, VOIP apps…)
- Excel in Excel (how to use spreadsheets to manage and report on data)
Packed tightly into an IT lab on the hottest days in recent memory, the group bonded quickly as Helen Rea, the university’s Associate Learning Technologist, guided them through each topic.
Each day started with the members sharing how they’d used their new skills on the job, and each day ended with a fun Kahoot! pop-quiz to see what they’d picked up.
I hope to see this course available again in the future to enable my colleagues to attend. I would like to thank all the facilitators for their hard work, support and for delivering such an excellent course. A very enjoyable experience. I loved it!
Really enjoyed this course and hope it is repeated for others.
Just like to say a big thank you to all the team they were all so helpful.
