Helping Physically Disabled People
	Stimulating Urban Regeneration

Bridging the Gap Between Communities

Helping Businesses to Help Themselves

Reaching out to Europe

Bringing Schools into the Community

Helping Physically Disabled People

"CyberSkills is about people seeing that they have a choice and taking more control of their lives" said David Halpin, Service Manager, Physical Disability at Lancashire County Council.

Five CyberSkills centres have been set up in Lancashire as part of the County Council's drive to engage physically disabled people in new ways of service delivery.

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Stimulating Urban Regeneration

The success of the CyberSkills workshop at Barnet College led to the development of the innovative £1.4m 'Upbeat' project. This aims to stimulate urban regeneration by giving High Street SMEs the skills to improve their commercial competitiveness.

Eight 'Upbeat Centres', established in Barnet and Enfield, are jointly financed by a partnership of Barnet College, the London Boroughs of Barnet and Enfield, North London Chamber of Commerce/Business Link, the European Commission and ICL.

Bridging the Gap Between Communities

Funded by the European Union, under its special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation, the Synergy Centre, in Northern Ireland, has been applying the CyberSkills Programme to address four key areas:

• Social inclusion
• Training and employment
• Economic regeneration
• Commercial multimedia development

Its neutral location on the peace line which divides Belfast's Falls and Shankill Roads enables groups and individuals from both sides of the community to meet and take up the opportunities offered by new technologies.

In July 1999 the Rt. Hon. Tony Blair presented the centre with a Business in the Community Award' for their contribution to the local community.

Helping Businesses to Help Themselves

CollegeNet.UK, a consortium of some of the UK's largest Further Education colleges, use CyberSkills to help improve the ICT skills of SMEs to give them competitive business advantages by learning, e.g. how to design their company web sites, or how to conduct on-line sales and marketing more effectively. The colleges, which deal with around 200,000 students a year, are:

• Barnsley College, New College Nottingham,
• Cornwall College, City College Birmingham,
• Stafford College, Waltham Forest College,
• West Cheshire College, and Newham College (London)

Reaching out to Europe

The new agenda of employability and adaptability is not confined to the UK. There is widespread recognition that a 'European Skills Gateway' could play an important part in economic regeneration and in overcoming social exclusion in Europe. One European Union's Regional Policy objectives is to improve the competitiveness of less favoured regions by developing a skilled workforce.

The first CyberSkills centre in Belgium was launched in June 1999 at Turnhout, a city with a high level of unemployment. As the city expands, prospective investors will seek assurance that the labour market can meet the demand for skills. The CyberSkills programme, backed by the Flanders government, the European Social Fund (ESF) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) will help the unemployed in the region develop the necessary ICT skills to match the need.

Bringing Schools into the Community

This November, school children in the Whitley Bay area of North Tyneside were able to teach their parents, and other members of the local community, new IT skills. Sixth formers at Monkseaton Community High School became the first students in the country to take an active role in bringing CyberSkills to the community through a series of workshops. These both help people overcome their fear of technology and demonstrate the benefits IT can bring to their everyday lives.

Monkseaton school also plans to introduce more workshops, based around the family. From January 2000, the school will provide CyberSkills workshops for local small businesses, helping them to capitalise on the e-Business boom. They will also teach skills such as creating a company website and marketing over the Internet.

Paul Kelley, Head Teacher, said:

As a community school, we want to encourage lifelong learning by becoming a hub where individuals and business people alike can drop in and learn new skills to improve their employment prospects, increase their company's competitiveness, or simply, for pleasure.

Our students, in particular, benefit from the involvement, as their communications skills and confidence improve, as well as their range of practical skills and experience. Many of the adults involved find that being taught by people younger than themselves can help break down barriers to understanding.

Paul Kelley, Head Teacher