Female entrepreneur tackles local digital skill gaps by offering training in Community Spaces

Francene Mullings, founder of Digitalise promises to help bridge digital skill shortages amongst struggling local organisations in safe and accessible community spaces. 

The Federation of Small Business “Learning the Rope” report* highlights that a quarter of smaller companies in England lack digital skills, affecting both their productivity and growth.  

There are many local business owners and organisations struggling to reach their audience. This group form the backbone of their local economy but are often excluded from the wide ”digital skills” conversation. 

Through step by step training and support, Digitalise helps these organisations bridge their digital skills gap and enhance their local reach and impact using the various online platforms.  

Digitalise provides personalised 1-2-1 and group training that builds both confidence and capacity for managers, owners and staff to take positive actions online.** 

Francene feels that libraries and other under-utilised community spaces could open their doors to facilitate this training.   

The sessions, already delivered in Fulham and Kingston Libraries, have helped over 100 organisations in the last year, which represents a 90% attendance rate. 

 "Offering digital skills support in libraries reach some of the most deserving organisations at the heart of the community. The individuals who run local businesses and charities work long hours, usually in a small team and have little capacity to access the expensive conventional options. Attendees feel safe in a library space. They expect friendly assistance, so they jump to the opportunity for either free or low-cost support”. - Francene Mullings

Digitalise also receive excellent feedback after each session, many around appreciation for personalised, relaxed support in a familiar location.  The training sessions range from 2-3 hours in the form of 30-minute, 1-1 session or group training. Topics covered include social media marketing, local marketing and introduction to software tools to become more productive at work.