ONSIDE Training Successfully Pivots to Online Delivery

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Onside trainers Helen and Colin at the start of the project.

Onside trainers Helen and Colin at the start of the project.

Despite a somewhat hindered start due to the global pandemic, the ONSIDE Project’s digital skills training programme is now fully up and running.

All participants were to receive a Lenovo tablet computer at the start of our work, but their delivery was prevented by shipping delays and the initial training had to start without them. Finally, the first batch of tablets arrived in May. Everyone was delighted to receive their new devices! Unfortunately, by this point, we could no longer meet in person to show participants how to use them. Our training team quickly shifted gears to find new ways to deliver the training online, such as creating written step by step manuals, setting up the tablets before delivery, and adapting lesson plans for online learning.

Still, for participants with no previous digital experience at all, the prospect of doing an online course was a bit daunting. We started out by providing support over the phone and doing practice Zoom meetings to get used to the device. Now, most of our participants have successfully joined the online training sessions, something they wouldn’t have thought they could do a few months ago!

In June, we started the first online sessions for participants who had already begun the course prior to lockdown. Those initial courses are now complete, and we are thrilled to be starting training with another 13 new groups in July.

Mark Gamble, Project Participant, learning at home on his new Tablet

Mark Gamble, Project Participant, learning at home on his new Tablet

“I’ve recently finished the ONSIDE course, it was really useful and helpful. I only thought I knew my way around the internet and could do some stuff like banking and shopping, but that’s only a small amount compared to what I know now.

The tablet is an amazing piece of kit, I use it every day. The trainers that took the class were really friendly. If you get the chance, go for it, you won’t regret it!”

Supporting everyone to get online is so important, now more than ever. The ONSIDE Project came just in time for many who would have been stuck at home for months without access to online shopping, video calling, and other online services.

The ONSIDE (Outreach, Navigation, Social Inclusion and digital Engagement) project aims to improve the health and wellbeing of disabled people through increasing their social and digital involvement in the community.

Supporting Communities is running the digital skills training strand of the work alongside the work of project partners Disability Action NI, the Housing Executive and the Independent Living Movement Ireland. The project is supported by the EU’s INTERREG VA Programme and managed by the Special EU Programmes Body.