Essential Digital Skills

The Computers for Beginners course will help you gain a nationally recognised Essential Digitals Skills qualification. The course will enable you to develop the digital skill you need for life, work and further study, while on the course you will develop confidence in the following five areas:

• Using devices and handling information
• Creating and editing
• Communicating
• Transacting
• Being safe and responsible online

The focus will be on developing skills for life and introducing learners to skills for work. At level 1 the focus will be more on skills for work with a secondary focus on skills for life.

For the first seven weeks, you are enrolled on an introduction to Computers for Beginners course, where you will be taught the essential skills to help develop the confidence to progress on to the main qualification. At the end of the seven weeks, you will complete a progress assessment, followed by a one to one with your teacher to look at your next steps.

Flexible learning with rolling start dates throughout the year. Please apply and we will contact you with the next available start date.

*The daytime course will run from our Newcastle-under-Lyme town centre venue, Keele In Town at 53 Ironmarket, ST5 1PE.

You do not need any previous formal qualification to enrol on this course, however you should be able to complete the following tasks on your device:

• Turning on a device (including entering and updating any account information safely, such as a password)
• Use the available controls on a device (such as a mouse and keyboard for a computer, or touchscreen on a smartphone or tablet)
• Use the accessibility tools (including assistive technology) to make devices easier to use (such as changing display settings to make content easier to read)
• Interact with the home screen on a device
• Connect to the internet (including Wi-Fi) safely and securely, and opening a browser
• Open and access an application on a device.

To ensure you are enrolled on the correct level, we will carry out an initial assessment to identify your current digital skills capabilities and areas for development.

You will be accessed through a formal online assessment, externally set by the awarding body. The assessment is on-demand, through an external platform and you will be permitted to take the assessment on different devices including a laptop, desktop or tablet. In addition, you will be observed completing a task set by the awarding body.

Specific assessment requirements: The majority of questions in this course are file upload questions, it is required to upload screenshots or documents as requested to show what has been done.

Please contact on Michelle Davies 01782 254196 or email michelle.davies@nscg.ac.uk

Towards the end of the qualification we will discuss your progression options to help you achieve your goals.

This course is FREE.