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Digital exclusion Contents

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Chapter 7: Skills

Basic digital skills gaps

137.Digital skills are foundational to many of the UK’s ambitions for growth, productivity and innovation. As the Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy Paul Scully MP told us, “we talk a lot about making the UK a science and technology superpower by 2030 … but it means nothing if you do not have the customers or the skills base to use the products, never mind produce them in the first place.”235

138.The Government has supported several basic skills initiatives,236 including the Future Digital Inclusion programme funded by the Department for Education which helped over 1 million people with basic skills between 2014 and 2021.237 In this section we concentrate on five areas for further work: more attention, better join-up, consistent use of existing skills frameworks, less focus on qualifications and more support for community-level delivery.

Data on basic skills gaps

139.The Essential Digital Skills Framework is measured by Lloyds Banking Group on behalf of the Department for Education (see Box 1 in the introduction to this report for detail). It sets out different ways of categorising basic digital skills and highlights the fast-changing nature of the capabilities required to navigate life online.238

140.In the UK today, around 10.2 million adults (20 per cent) are unable to complete all eight of the Foundation tasks needed to set someone up for using the online world. Approximately 5 million (10 per cent) cannot use an app, and around 4.5 million (8 per cent) cannot turn on a device and enter login information by themselves. Around 2.4 million (4 per cent) are not able to do any of these core tasks.

141.The second measure is the Essential Digital Skills for Life, which involves 26 skills needed to navigate life online. According to Lloyds, around 88 per cent of adults (circa 46.5 million) have these digital skills. Around 7 per cent (3.7 million) of UK adults have partial life skills, indicating some degree of digital engagement. The remaining 5 per cent (2.7 million) do not have any digital life skills.

142.The third measure is the Essential Digital Skills for Work, which involves the core skills to thrive in an online workplace. Around 5.6 million employed adults (18 per cent) cannot do all 20 work tasks.239

Figure 5: Overview of basic digital skills at work

Source: Lloyds Bank, 2022 Consumer Digital Index (2022): https://www.lloydsbank.com/assets/media/pdfs/banking_with_us/whats-happening/230310-lloyds-uk-essential-digital-skills-for-work.pdf [accessed 16 May 2023]

More attention

143.Hugo Drayton, Chair of Citizens Online, emphasised that “everything in life is now dependent upon having access to these essential digital skills”.240 Yet as we set out in chapter 3, several witnesses believed that basic skills received insufficient Government attention.241 Helen Milner suggested they had been “airbrushed out” of the digital skills policy area that until recently sat in the then Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.242 Liz Williams said the issue deserved a similar level of attention to that which is given to maths.243

144.Antony Walker, Deputy CEO of techUK, said one major issue was that there was no “clear owner” of basic digital skills policy in Government, noting that “we sometimes have the odd initiative or things set up to make it appear as though there is real co-ordinated action, but there is not.”244 Hugo Drayton said another part of the problem was that basic digital skills gaps were too often attributed to elderly groups, whereas there “are a lot of young people who simply cannot get going in life”.245

The Essential Digital Skills Framework

145.Liz Williams said that, with some further work, the Essential Digital Skills Framework could be a “great asset” in tackling digital exclusion,246 but it was not being used consistently across Government: “Different departments are creating their own variants of it. You have all this sporadic effort. The wheels are turning, but not turning in the same direction”.247

146.We heard there were opportunities to use the Framework more proactively. Essential digital skills for work could be embedded in apprenticeships and adult education programmes, for example.248 School leavers could be required to demonstrate essential digital skills for life.249 We heard frustration that while the Framework is owned by the Department for Education, it is not systematically applied to those below 18, meaning that each year another cohort leaves school without being assessed.250 We noted that some young people may be adept at using social media but could still struggle with basic life and workplace tasks.251 Some evidence suggested schools should focus more on basic digital skills rather than coding.252

147.The Framework could also be embedded more prominently in the resources provided to job coaches, librarians and other frontline staff likely to engage with those at risk of digital exclusion.253 This would help staff on the ground identify needs and target resources efficiently. Many local authorities and libraries already do this, but our evidence highlighted significant geographical variation.254

148.Millions of people still lack the most basic digital skills for work and life. This problem affects a range of age groups. Addressing it should be a Government priority but there is insufficient leadership to make this happen.

149.The Essential Digital Skills Framework provides a good basis for driving improvements but it is not being used to its full potential. The Department for Education should use it to set basic digital skills targets at different education stages, including for school leavers. Apprenticeships and adult education courses offer further opportunities to test and provide basic skills training for people already enrolled on education programmes. The Department for Education should encourage a consistent cross-government approach to using the Framework.

Not just qualifications

The Digital Entitlement

150.The Government established the Digital Entitlement in 2020. This provides adults with no or low digital skills with the statutory right to undertake specified digital qualifications up to level 1 free of charge.255

151.We heard that these formal qualifications are often not effective for target groups. The Good Things Foundation found that only 22 per cent of those with no formal qualifications expressed an interest in taking part in a digital skills programme.256 It said the Essential Digital Skills Qualification was “too big a step” and unlikely to meet the needs of a diverse range of digitally excluded people “who do not seek formal qualifications but would benefit from digital skills support in familiar, community settings.”257 Starting Point Community Learning Partnership in Stockport noted that digitally excluded groups often had “poor education experiences resulting in a lack of literacy and confidence in the education sector.”258

152.The House of Lords Covid-19 Committee welcomed the introduction of the Digital Entitlement but concluded that “undertaking formal qualifications … will not be the right solution for everyone.”259 Helen Milner from the Good Things Foundation said the digital entitlement was “failing those people; it is a bit ‘Tick, done that. Off it goes’ … but it is not working and no one is asking why.”260

Local and community-based interventions

153.The importance of community-based, locally delivered digital exclusion interventions and partnerships was a consistent theme in our evidence. As Councillor John Hacking of Manchester City Council told us, local authorities provide a range of support services and resources,261 but success is heavily reliant on partnerships with the “private sector, health, the public sector … the voluntary community and faith sectors. We have digital champions in all those fields, and digital buddies who will go into community centres and talk to people.”262

154.We heard that people needing support were often best served by trusted local organisations rather than large institutions.263 Local organisations have embedded relationships in their communities to identify and engage digitally excluded individuals in ways that larger institutions cannot.264 As Helen Milner argued, “the formal education sector, which spends millions of pounds on adult learning, is not reaching these people.”265

155.We also heard there is a role for businesses to invest in training their own employees. Rowlando Morgan, Head of Environment, Infrastructure & Local Growth at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, noted that there may be limited incentives for industry investment given the risks of trained employees leaving.266 But firms nevertheless stand to benefit significantly from improved workplace productivity, technology adoption and cyber security basics.267

156.Community-based engagement services can provide a good platform for generating interest and confidence in using the internet.268 Professor Simeon Yates gave the example of one individual maintaining that:

“’Computers are not for me’ … I realised he was into fishing and put him on a fishing website. The next week he is pushing the other older people out of the way to get to the laptop. You do not know that at government level.”269

157.Some witnesses said the Government should provide more funding to civil society schemes with a proven track record.270 Others suggested the funding allocation system itself needed to change. Many noted that the short-term basis on which funding is allocated inhibits long-term commitments to tackle deep-rooted issues.271 Dr Hamish Laing from the Digital Inclusion Alliance Wales shared the benefits of more long-term funding in Wales:

“Digital Communities Wales has now had six years of funding. That certainty of funding is very helpful, because when working with communities it takes time to build relationships”.272

158.During our visit to Skills Enterprise in East Ham, we heard that the charity struggled to attract funding for initiatives that would help address digital exclusion. It found these were too often reserved for larger institutions or formal educational settings such as local colleges, even when smaller and more agile organisations might be better placed to deliver the funding stream’s objectives.273

159.Formal qualifications are not always the best way to help adults obtain basic digital skills. Local interventions and more informal engagements delivered through community hubs can provide a key way of reaching digitally excluded individuals, and building the motivation, confidence and skills needed to get online. But many smaller organisations find it difficult to access the resources to deliver such work, particularly when funding schemes are designed for larger institutions.

160.The Government should ensure community-level interventions feature prominently in its digital inclusion strategy refresh. This does not mean they need to offer formal qualifications. The Government should work with funders and local authorities to review the criteria and systems for distributing funding for basic skills support to ensure that smaller organisations are not prevented from accessing the resources needed to deliver local-level interventions.

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