Irene and Gordon Jones first approached the
Oldham Council Moorhey Street Dept Learning Centre after a UK
Online event held in September 2010, caught their attention.
Initially Irene and Gordon both approached
Stephen Hewitt, a Unite ULR and the Coordinator at the
learning centre, to enquire about any free computer courses offered
there.
Stephen responded by making arrangements for
both of them to have access to computers at the centre. Irene had
said that she had considered buying a laptop herself but didn't
know where to start to, or even how to switch a computer on.
'Clearly we were going to have to start from
the beginning in this case. So I began by switching off the
computers and asked Irene and Gordon to have a go at starting them
up,' said Stephen.
'I then enrolled Gordon on an online basics
course, where he spent several hours completing the course while
Irene set out to search the internet for computers to buy, on
various websites.'
Within minutes Gordon was happily racing
through the course on keyboard and mouse applications and really
enjoyed himself. Irene was on a roll too - she was checking out
retail sites such as PC World, Comet, Ebay and Argos, all
online!
Two weeks later Stephen received a phone call
asking for help from Irene and Gordon, as they had purchased a
computer and had even signed up to broadband through the Post
Office. The problem was that Irene and Gordon were unsure as to how
to set their computer and broadband up and wanted assistance. Later
on that day, Stephen went round for dinner and showed them how to
hook up their computer and broadband, as well as how to set up
their unique passwords needed to log on to the internet.
'I am very pleased to say that they were not
disappointed with this new online world they had introduced into
their lives. Irene has learnt how to use facebook, book online
holidays and pay bills online. Gordon can now confidently edit and
print off his own photographs and surfs the net on a regular basis,
looking for interesting YouTube clips,' said Stephen.
'None of this would have happened if we hadn't
decided to register as an online centre partner or had the
facilities and support of Oldham Council to help senior citizens
like ourselves become silver surfers,' said Graham.
Irene stated, 'We are very happy with our
computer and were slowly getting to grips with it. I do wish that
Stephen would have accepted more than a box of chocolates for all
his help in teaching us how the world of online works.'
Written by Stephen Hewitt – Unite ULR
In addition Oldham council have now won a skills award in
the North West - click HERE to see the declaring
letter.
