Digital Poverty
Amelia Banful, Head of Business Strategy at Enviro Electronics
Yetunde Elebuibon, Founder of Knowledge Pool
Chris Oldacre, Director for Customer Success at IBM and Chair of Doncaster UTC Local Governing Board
The notion of a “digital divide” is of great concern to many up and down the country. And those on the wrong side of this worrisome gap can be put at a severe disadvantage. Smartphones, tablets, laptops and convenient internet access are not mere luxuries anymore but essential parts of modern living. Without them, people, businesses, and indeed, entire places, can be left behind. It’s therefore imperative that we have a society wherein everybody has the relevant technology and skills they need in order to thrive. Alas, rampant inequality when it comes to digital skills and equipment leaves many vulnerable people unable to qualify for jobs, to perform everyday tasks or even to simply communicate with others. Eager to address this disparity, there are a number of phenomenal businesspeople and entrepreneurs based right here in Doncaster, who are doing outstanding work to combat Digital Poverty. To find out more, we assembled a panel of these specialists to talk about why this is such a hot-button issue and what more can be done. Before we delve into these nuances, though, let’s meet our experts. Chris Oldacre, Director for Customer Success at IBM and Chair of Doncaster UTC Local Governing Board IBM is one of the world’s biggest technology companies and has been around for an awfully long time. We’ve invented things that have genuinely changed the world, whether that’s the magnetic strip on the back of your credit card or, more recently,
advancements in the realms of AI and Quantum Computing. It is truly a remarkable company and one that has a very rich history of giving back and trying to improve the world around it. For instance, just a few years ago, we made a commitment to train 30 million people in digital skills by 2030. That’s a huge statement! The thing is, while IBM does a lot of fantastic work around the globe, that doesn’t necessarily translate into me making a huge impact closer to home in Doncaster. However, I was determined to help my local community, having grown up here, which is why I decided to get involved with the University Technical College as well. I believe that Doncaster has lots of fantastic talent, but that there are obstacles holding them back from unlocking their potential. It’s not always easy to navigate the various career pathways that are available and opportunities aren’t immediately apparent in some cases. Yet through the UTC we are trying to change that. It’s an educational institution, one that’s still founded on the principles of academic rigor, but it’s also deeply intertwined with industry. The hypothesis behind it was that: If we give students a solid academic background — with a golden thread of employability skills and digital understanding — then that would result in more work-ready people at the other end. So that’s the difference we try to make. Yetunde Elebuibon, Founder of Knowledge Pool We are a social enterprise that similarly tries to teach people the skills they need to thrive in today’s high-tech world.
Specifically, we offer training for those who are “digitally disadvantaged”. There are lots of different reasons why people could be less tech-savvy, ranging from their age to their income or some other personal circumstance. Our goal is to bridge that competency gap and help them get to grips with the tools they need; whether that’s by showing them how to power-on a device, where to plug in their chargers or how to use specific applications. [In turn] we could be helping them to progress in their existing careers, to qualify for a brand new job, to advance into further education or to just keep in touch with their loved ones. In this capacity, we’ve work with organisations like Changing Lives, Age UK and a lot of faith groups too, the latter of whom really needed our help during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Amelia Banful, Head of Business Strategy at Enviro Electronics And we look at the other side of digital poverty; thinking about how people can get a hold of the actual devices in the first place. Our aim is to help businesses and educational institutions [the latter comprises roughly 80% of Enviro Electronics’ clientele] when their tight budgets don’t allow them to stretch any further and they can’t get the equipment they need. We will recycle anything from PCs to laptops, microwaves and hoovers and a percentage of what we collect then goes into community projects. Organisations we have supported include the Deaf School, The Refugee Council and Voluntary Doncaster, to name but a few. And the donations are made completely free of charge.
to be a major obstacle if they don’t know how to work a digital device but are told that they can only have a remote appointment. So if we’re going to continue trying to digitize everything, that we need to make sure it’s fair and that we bring everyone along with us. Amelia: I came to a similar realisation lately when I was working with the Refugee Council. A representative from that organisation came to us in an hour of absolute need. They had all of these families from the Ukraine who, because of the situation in that part of the world, had to flee and relocate. And what struck me most was this doctor who was struggling to get work. She was highly educated and qualified, but hit a fundamental stumbling block right away because she had no means of connecting to the internet and, therefore, to the modern world. On top of that, they also couldn’t connect with their family back home either to see what’s happening with them. The lady was completely and totally overwhelmed because their lack of digital access was putting them at such a disadvantage. That really hammered home the importance of this issue for me. We need to be able to support people like her in that position.
Chris: I’ve got to say, that’s a real cold- water shock for me. We often make this assumption that everyone at least has access to a device in the first place, and so our focus [when tackling digital poverty] tends to be about helping people to use said technology effectively. It becomes about education and about training them. Whereas Amelia’s point is that some people don’t even have the device to begin with! That’s a really interesting aspect that I hadn’t considered before. From my perspective, the reason [the UTC’s mission] is so vital is that digital skills are the skills of the future. We used to consider reading, writing and numeracy the most essential parts of any education. But nowadays we have to acknowledge that digital literacy is literacy and you simply cannot communicate in the modern world without it. The pace of change is only accelerating as well because of the global economic environment. Companies are looking for efficiency and that tends to breed automation which, in turn, leads to a greater adoption of tech. If you can’t navigate that environment, then it will only make things more difficult for you father down the line. Both in terms of employment and in everyday life as Yetunde just pointed out.
Amelia: We are extremely dependent on technology nowadays and there are so many things that you simply cannot do if you’re not literate in that area. Times are changing and it will soon reach a point where you cannot even function if you don’t know how to use certain devices or applications. Yetunde: Exactly. If we don’t ensure that people have the requisite knowledge, then we’ll be leaving [vast swathes] of the population behind. For example, I was recently working with this nursery school manager who didn’t know how to create a calendar appointment, and it made their job quite difficult. Yet while having digital skills can open up so many doors, and potentially lead to higher earnings, the needs can run much deeper for some people. The other day, I was reviewing a document that explained how there’s a big challenge when it comes to digitizing the NHS, because a lot of people are not equipped for that change. You know, if an 80-year-old wants to be seen by their GP, it’s going Network Magazine: There are obviously countless ways that a business can be a force for good. Why have you all chosen to focus specifically on this one area: digital poverty?
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Digital Poverty
Digital Poverty
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