The digital and social inclusion charity Good Things Foundation has awarded £375,000 in grants, through funding from Google.org, to support digital inclusion projects
Online centre of Good Things Foundation – TrainingMatchmaker.com has been appointed as an approved Make It Click learning facilitator and thanks to a grant from Google.org, the charity side of Google, Training Matchmaker is set to inspire over 100 working age adults across Northern Ireland to get learning and improve their digital skills.
The grant will enable Training Matchmaker to support people who often don’t receive support or fall through the gaps. TrainingMatchmaker is set to build awareness of the many free online courses and resources available online and in doing so is committed to building both competence and confidence in using digital tools for gains in work and in life.
Founder of TrainingMatchmaker.com – Chartered Marketer Christine Watson who welcomed the funding announcement for Northern Ireland said: “Inspiring learning is at the heart of TrainingMatchmaker.com and what we set out to achieve every day. I look forward to helping over 100 individuals to learn new skills and in doing so we will be supporting the people of Northern Ireland to achieve positive employment outcomes and benefitting the work readiness of the Northern Ireland economy in the digital age”.
Good Things Foundation, which works to help socially excluded people improve their lives through digital, has awarded the money through a new Response and Resilience Fund to 125 of its network community partners to help them continue to support local people to engage with digital.
Even before the pandemic there was a digital skills gap in the UK, research has shown that less than half of adults have the skills to complete basic digital tasks, such as downloading apps or using online maps, and 40% of people in the UK do not have the digital skills required for most jobs.
Both TrainingMatchmaker.com and the MakeItClick.com platform signpost to free online learning opportunities including certified credited courses from companies such as Hootsuite, Facebook and Google. All of the learning signposted on MakeItClick.com is free to access and if you are interested in benefitting from the learning facilitation or partnering with TrainingMatchmaker.com to deliver a learning project for your audience then you can sign up to MakeItClick.com by registering with TrainingMatchmaker.com’s Centre Number – 8003411. 
