Wales has become the latest member of Digital Unite’s Digital Champions Network as part of a new national project to improve the digital skills of Welsh public service workers.
DigiSkills Cymru is UNISON’s public services digital skills project funded by the Wales Union Learning Fund and hosted by 
WEA Cymru. It is designed to help the Welsh public service workforce better understand and utilise digital technology. The team is using the Network to provide the essential training and support to create over 100 workplace Digital Champions across Wales over the next two years.
Already with 16 housing providers as members representing over 700,000 residents, Digital Unite’s Digital Champions Network is a flexible online platform that provides Digital Champion training and a support community for people who go through that training.
It offers structured and self-study e-learning courses on how to help and inspire new learners to get and stay online and peer-to-peer support through a friendly, moderated forum. Access to 44 downloadable resources and 400 online guides provides the essential teaching and personal development toolkit and all of the Digital Champion activity on the ground can be tracked, evaluated and refined.
The core Digital Champion e-learning course and some of the site infrastructure is available in Welsh and there will also be a Welsh moderated forum to further enhance the DigiSkills Cymru initiative.
Richard Speight, Project Manager for DigiSkills Cymru said: “The way citizens engage with public services is changing and in our role of supporting public service workers it’s our duty to help our learners adapt and embrace this new digital culture in their workplaces. Digital Unite’s Digital Champions Network provides an established and proven infrastructure to help our Workplace Champions develop the essential online skills and confidence they need so they can go on and inspire other Welsh colleagues and citizens.”
Kathy Valdes, Business Development Manager said: “We are thrilled to be welcoming DigiSkills Cymru to the Digital Champions Network. In our long-held experience the best way to support people with being online is by having trained volunteers and staff who can provide local support over a long period of time. With nearly 500 Digital Champions using our courses and resources to support hundreds of learners our Network is providing an effective way to deliver meaningful digital inclusion.”