Thank crunchie it's Friday

Day 5: Keep Calm and Carry a Lightsaber

Looking up Regent Street towards Barnsley Town Hall

Busy day to get through- hence the 'Depressed Darth' quote (if you're not following me on twitter- @alisonvint1- why not?! Beginning at the A4e premises in Barnsley town centre this morning with a new course. We had 8 lovely learners who were really keen to get online and use the internet to look for work. We started off with introductions and computer basics before giving everyone the chance to use Google to search for things they were interested in- this included cleaning jobs, looking up fancy dress outfits and a review of the new Jools Holland CD! Next week we will get everyone sorted with an email address and then move on to CV building. Great start today- everyone got stuck in and helped each other and we even had a bit of a laugh along the way. See picture below.


Get IT Together tutor Tony explains what a search engine is

This afternoon I raced off to the last session of an 8 week course at Sunrise Manor community centre in Platts Common. This is a centre managed by Berneslai Homes who manage the social housing in the borough. Get IT Together have provided a tutor, Tom, and over the course there have been 7 learners attending to find out how they can benefit from being online. The course has now finished, and I am looking at progression opportunties for them in the New Year. Before they finished the session I took a few pictures and also recorded a short clip of Matt Lowe, Berneslai Homes Digital Inclusion Officer talking about his role and the way that we have been working together in Barnsley to promote digital inclusion. The plan was to upload that now, but true to form the technology has let me down and my internet speed is too slow! Watch this space, or maybe it will appear on the Citizens Online website. Matt is breathing a sigh of relief- a brief respite Matt, you were too good not to be broadcast! Rather appropriately, that concludes my blog from Barnsley- now passing the baton over to Lorraine in Kirklees. Over and out!