Digital Skills Education

We delivered digital safety awareness workshops with the Voice of Experience Forum

Over the past 18 months, we’ve been working with the Voice of Experience Forum to deliver digital safety awareness workshops for older people across North Lanarkshire.

The Voice of Experience Forum is a registered charity that works throughout North Lanarkshire as the champion and representative voice of older people. Together, we delivered six workshops to help people feel more confident spotting scams, protecting their personal information, and staying safe online.

The sessions took place in Kilsyth, Cumbernauld, Airdrie, Wishaw, Motherwell and Shieldmuir.

Helping people spot online scams

In each session, we focused on practical advice people could use straight away.

We talked about some of the most common online scams including suspicious emails from banks, text message scams pretending to be family members, and recent examples linked to winter heating discounts. A few participants had already come across similar scams themselves, which led to some really useful conversations about what to look out for and what to do next. 

These conversations are often the most valuable part of the session, because people realise they are not alone. Scams can happen to anyone, and the more we talk about them, the more we can support each other.

The aim was not to scare people away from using technology. It was to help them feel more confident, and able to stop and check before clicking a link.

A personal highlight was one participant who came along to the Halloween session dressed up for the occasion! Can you spot them in the photo?

Feedback from participants

We had fantastic feedback.

Across the sessions, 100% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that they had achieved each of the four main learning outcomes.

Participants told us they found the workshops useful, engaging, and easy to follow.

“These were very well received by our members and others who attended. We would have no hesitation in resuming this partnership.”

Denis, Voice of Experience Forum

We were also delighted to receive this feedback from one of the community groups involved:

“Everyone really found it helpful and engaging, and they took away a lot of valuable information about staying safe online and being scam aware. It was so nice seeing them get involved.”

Marina, Veterans Community Lanarkshire

Supporting digital inclusion in the community

These workshops were funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, secured by the Voice of Experience Forum. Without this support, these events would not have been possible.

Funding like this makes a real difference. It allows community groups to bring practical digital skills training directly to the people who need it, in familiar local settings where they already feel comfortable.

And of course, our courses are dog friendly.

Kirstie

Digital Skills Education