Start building your digital skills

Explore skills for everyday life and for the workplace, helping you get online and stay connected.

Digital skills are essential to modern life, but it can be difficult to know which skills you need and where to learn them. Our Skills Tool helps identify the digital skills you need and find the local services and support available to help you.

Two ladies taking selfie, a man working with his notebook pc.

Find free digital support in your area

Do you need help getting online?

Click 'Start' to answer some questions and find the nearest options for accessing the help you need.

Alternatively you can follow this link to the directory where you can search for services directly.

Improve your confidence with new skills

Our Skills Tool assesses what skills you need and recommends resources and services that can support you to improve and make progress. You may wish to improve your skills for life, to help you with day-to-day online tasks. Or you can develop skills to pursue a more digital career, strengthen your CV and improve your employability. Follow the links below for more information on the different pathways available.

Skills for Life

Improve your skills for life to help with everyday tasks. This includes online banking, ordering prescriptions or making video calls.

Explore

What skills do you want to learn and improve?

Use our Skills for Life pathway to develop skills that help with everyday tasks online, engage with new technology, and keep in touch with friends and family. Use our Skills for Work pathway to become more skilled in your workplace and to help progress your career and employability.

Skills for Work

Improving your digital skills can improve your job opportunities. Become more skilled in the workplace or work towards a digital career.

Explore

What can you achieve?

Get your Digital Skills Score by completing our short skills assessment. Find local services and resources to help you make progress and update your assessment to see your score improve. Come back anytime to update your score and find new resources. Why not get started today!

1

Choose your pathway

Skills for Work or Skills for Life. You can do both if you wish, but choose the one you want to begin with.

2

Create your profile

Create your profile by verifying your phone number or email address. This means you can log back in at anytime to continue and to update your progress!

3

Answer a short set of six questions

This will assess the skills you have and help identify the skills that you need to work on and improve.

4

See your skills score

See your Skills Score and what you need to do to improve. Answer questions again and learn more about the two pathways and the types of skills involved.

5

Check recommended services

Check your recommended services and resources to find out how to develop and grow your digital skills by connecting with local organisations, training providers and groups.

Improve your progress

Come back and update your answers and increase your score to see if you can reach the next milestone!

6

Success stories

Digital skills can help you to become more independent and productive at home. You can also keep in touch with your friends, family and local community. For some people, improving their digital skills is the first step to a new career. Read our stories from residents in Essex who have been able to change their lives by improving their digital skills.

Anne

Anne is a retired Teacher in her 70’s, she first came to the Maldon Digital Drop In session with techno phobia - but is proof that with some patience, encouragement and time that anyone can become digitally connected and improve their digital skills!

No question was ever made to feel silly and over time Anne learnt the basics of using her phone, setting up an email address and Facebook account and how to make video calls. Anne has completed several of the learning modules on Learn My Way and has been learning how to Stay Safe Online.

Anne’s willingness to learn has encouraged her to explore the skills she needs to find information, stay in touch with family and friends, and safely enjoy using the internet.