E’s Digital Skills Journey

Esther, has been working with Iona Lea, our Digital Skills Coach for four months. She first got in touch looking to develop her digital confidence, hoping to become digitally independent in the future. Before starting her journey, she had not had internet access at home but had proactively learned about computers on college courses. She had worked with a laptop before but didn’t for a few years and in that time, technology had advanced - laptops with it.

At the start of her time with the Foyer Esther was very nervous and scared of getting online as she felt she didn’t have any digital talents, knowledge or skills. She was very resistant to trying too many things without knowing absolutely everything she can about being online.  With baby steps and lots of encouragement she was quickly able to see that she had many more talents than she realised. She is resilient, persevering and willing to try.

After a few sessions Esther felt confident and supported enough to try taking a laptop and MiFi device home to try using it independently. Now, four months since she first came to us, Esther has so many hard and soft skills under her belt! A lot of those skills were already there, hiding underneath Esther's digital and learning anxieties.

This Learning River that Esther and Iona completed together shows how far E has travelled on her journey so far, all the things she can do, and how many talents she has. It also looks forward to the next part of our journey together, we've got lots of ideas about what we want to do next all in line with E's interests and needs.

Well done Esther - look at all the things you can do and how many talents you've discovered about yourself!