Digital Skills Support for Businesses and Charities

There is a variety of webinars, online skills training and self-help guides available to help with some of the new skills we now need whilst working from home.

New Training Opportunities

Embrace Digital

The Embrace Digital programme is a series of webinars, workshops and 1:1 support to help businesses decide which digital software can support their future resilience and growth. The programme covers digital productivity tools, digital marketing, cloud accounting and ecommerce, and is fully funded for Lancashire businesses by Lancashire County Council.

Introductory webinars
1:1 calls to decide which tools are a good fit for your business (limited places available)
Follow-on workshops designed to give a deeper dive into specific tools

More dates for 2022 on the Eventbrite page. Keep checking as more events will be added throughout the spring.

Digital Boost

Digital Boost are a community of digital professionals who want to help small businesses and charities upskill and grow. They offer one-to-one mentoring, webinars and workshops (topics chosen by small businesses and charities) and a range of online self-paced learning from their 1600+ partners (including BT, McCann, Google, Vodafone, Future Learn).

Digital Boost match organisations who need to upskill with digital experts for free one-to-one mentoring, as well as make personalised recommendations for courses, workshops and resources.

You can sign up to receive support or if you have skills to give, sign up as a mentor.

Free ContentCal Training – How to get found online – Mastering Content Planning

Catch up on demand with this training on how to develop content – outlines 6 free tools to help you including: Days of the Year, Mentionlytics, Best Hashtags, ContentCal and Hypeauditor.

Webinars

Boost – Lancashire’s Growth Hub for Business

Boost have a range of training available for Businesses of all types – you can browse their full events page to see them all.

BT Skills for Tomorrow

BT and their partners are offering a range of webinars to help SME owners and their employees improve their digital and employability skills through online tools, social media advice and new digital tips and tricks, empowering them with the skills they need today, for tomorrow. View here for full list of webinars.

Google Digital Garage

Google have put together a number of webinars that fall in to three categories: Grow Your Skills, Grow Your Business and Grow Your Career – covering a range of topics, for example: digital marketing and social media strategy. Dates range until the end of April (at present).

The Growing Club, Lancaster – Free webinars to support businesses and their owners

Our partners at The Growing Club in Lancaster have set up ways to continue to support businesses and their owners during this time of uncertainty. All of these options are free. You can also keep updated by following their page @TheGrowingClubNorthwest on Facebook.

Every Thursday lunchtime 12.30 to 2pm – Drop in on Zoom for networking, peer support and accountability. Find out more about these events here.

Lloyds Bank Academy

Alongside the free resources available, Lloyds Bank Academy are hosting some online and interactive sessions where you will hear from experts, pick up key tips and tricks and have time to do some virtual networking.

Lots of webinars are available and recordings of ones that have already taken can be found here: LB Academy Interactive Webinars

Pink Link

Pink Link Business network have introduced a series of on Zoom masterclasses including some that are digitally focused – from How to use Zoom to digital marketing all hosted by women of the network. You can also access previous sessions. You can find out more about what masterclasses are available and more about the Network here.

UpSkill Digital – Free Webinars

Our partners from Upskill Digital are offering free webinars covering topics such as: Coronavirus and managing remote teams effectively, managing remote teams effectively and embracing the remote working experience. You can find all the full range of new and on demand webinars here.

Toolkits and Insights

Other Tools Available

Google Hangouts Meet and Google Classroom

Google is offering free access to advanced features on Hangouts Meet to all G Suite and G Suite for Education customers globally until 1/07/2020. These advanced features include:

hosting meetings of up to 250 participants
live streaming up to 100,000 viewers
and recording and saving to Google Drive

Find out more from Google here.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams are offering a free version of Teams that lifts restrictions on how many users can be part of a team and allows users to schedule video calls, conferences, chat, share files and access 3^rd party integrations.

Video training on how to use Microsoft Teams can be accessed here.

The free version of Zoom enables video conferencing with unlimited 121 calls, group calls with 40 min limit and chat functions.

Check out Zoom here.

Slack is an online tool that helps people work together and collaborate as easily online as they do in person. It’s designed to support the way people naturally work together, making collaborating with people online as easy and efficient as it is face-to-face. To get your head around how it works and what it is, Slack has a range of training materials available including a Slack 101 guide for those new to it and a hints and tips section as well.

Free Courses to Develop Digital and Technical Skills

City and Guilds

City and Guilds are looking to support those who are working with apprenticeships. Find out more about their offer here.

The Catalyst

The Catalyst have a range of step by step guides that you may find useful at present. Catalyst support charity organisations but the guides will be relevant to all. More information can be found here.

Enterprise Nation

Enterprise Nation is a community of small businesses and business advisers that exist to shortcut your route to trusted business support. Whether you’re starting or growing a business, they have the resources to help you. You can view there full range of digital skills support here.

FutureLearn

FutureLearn is a digital education platform jointly owned by The Open University and SEEK Ltd, where you can find content from The Open University and over 140 education partners. The content is made available free of charge to an individual learner. Some of the most relevant training includes:

Learn My Way

Learn My Way from The Good Things Foundation has courses on Google, Outlook, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and productivity tools.

If you are new to working remotely or just looking for tips, LinkedIn has put out a free learning path of 16 online courses including: best practice for working remotely, time management, productivity tips, executive presence on video calls, building resilience and leading at a distance.

Lloyds Academy

The Lloyds Academy has wide array of training available for businesses to “unlock the business benefits of digital”. Categories of training include:

Managing finances
Understanding your customers
Improving your website
Managing your business online
Using social media
Staying safe and secure

Microsoft Teams

Video training on Microsoft Teams available here.

OpenLearn by The Open University

OpenLearn is a free learning platform, delivered by The Open University as part of its Royal Charter commitment to support the well-being of the community. Here you will find almost 1,000 free courses, topical and interactive content, videos and online games. Some of the most relevant today are:

Other training available

Don’t forget the wide range of free digital skills you can find collated on the Lancashire Digital Skills Partnership webpage.