The Digital Inclusion Roadmap brings together work across Government to achieve digital inclusion through better skills, access and infrastructure.
My Department's role in respect of the Roadmap is ensuring that adults have basic digital skills, including skills to use the internet for older people, should they wish to do so. The Adult Literacy for Life, or ALL Strategy is a crucial element of the Roadmap, and the delivery of priorities set out under ALL will be central to the effective and successful delivery of the Roadmap.
Significantly, the ALL Strategy aims to reduce the share of adults in Ireland without basic digital skills from 47% to 20% by 2030. Key deliverables for 2023 under the ALL strategy include a specific focus on literacy and digital skills of older people. A number of projects under the ALL Collaboration and Innovation Fund focus specifically on digital literacy, including for older people. One of the areas we intend to focus on in the coming months is digital skills for older people.
Indeed in your own constituency, the Waterford Wexford ETB Adult Literacy Centres provide a range of digital literacy classes for adults including introduction to technology, computer skills, desktop publishing, spreadsheets, and internet skills. Many of the classes include using social media for learning and teaching giving students the skills to participate in modern life. Waterford Library Services provide additional support for learners who return to education. Waterford Wexford ETB are currently running four digital literacy courses in Waterford City. Learners attending classes with Waterford Wexford ETB are learning the digital literacy skills that are required in the modern workplace and education environments.
The 16 Education and Training Boards, funded through SOLAS, provide a range of programmes to cater for the digital literacy needs of adults, including older people. Digital skills in using devices as well as other practical digital skills such as learning how to use the internet, cloud services, and applications are all areas that have become a priority for delivery, including for older adults.
My Department, working closely with the Programme Office for the ALL Strategy in SOLAS, will continue to actively engage on the commitments set out in the Roadmap to seek to ensure that no one is left behind as digitisation of our society intensified.
