Infoxchange's Digital Springboard - Train the Trainer

Photo: Catherine McIntyre, Connecting Up Coordinator with volunteers: Radhika Guttikonda, Erin, Cheryl Heitman, Sophie Hood, Lynn Huang, Stephanie (Infoxchange presenter) and Samantha Agius. 

Connecting Up staff and volunteers were eager attendees of Infoxchange's Digital Springboard train-the-trainer sessions held in Adelaide.
 
The national initiative aims to improve digital skills by delivering face-to-face training to assist people in the community develop those skills they need to thrive in work and life.

The organisation is looking to partner with community groups, libraries and councils that are interested in upskilling and presenting training sessions to their particular communities.

Why did your organisation become a partner?

Connecting Up became a delivery partner to improve the digital skills of our volunteers, recognising that our volunteers are our local community, and they needed help to grow their digital knowledge so that they could build connections, confidence and transition into employment. We knew that many other not-for-profit organisations and community centres were likely to be in the same position as us, as we realised that our particular community in need actually volunteers with us and we are wanting to upskill them balanced against resource demands and program limitations.

How does the Digital Springboard program support you?

Infoxchange in partnership with Google provides an opportunity for delivery partners to receive training and access a partner pack containing all the information and resources needed to present Digital Springboard courses, allowing us to improve the digital skills of our ever-changing volunteers over time, knowing that by starting small we would impact our local community as a whole as they were able to upskill and move into employment.

What courses are available? Do you have to present them all? 

The Digital Springboard program is also flexible with partners selecting courses to present from a wide range that are most suitable for their community. Connecting Up staff and volunteers chose to 'Build a CV' and 'Write a cover letter' since so many of our volunteers are job seekers.  In addition, we selected 'Social media strategy' and 'Writing for social media' as part of expanding our volunteer's roles to further assist community services through writing articles and stories to promote and raise awareness of these organisations activities.  

What does the train-the-trainer session provide? 

Connecting Up invited a number of our current volunteers to the train-the-trainer program as it allowed them the experience and understanding needed to potentially assist with presenting demonstrations to new volunteers. In addition, it provided a better understanding of the program to reach out to other organisations they are involved in, to encourage these groups in turn to become Digital Springboard partners.

How can we become involved? 

If your organisation would like to become a Digital Springboard delivery partner and help people to grow their digital knowledge and skills. Visit https://www.digitalspringboard.org.au/ read the FAQs and fill in the online application or contact https://www.digitalspringboard.org.au/ for more information.