The digital divide - more than just laptops and tablets

Although this is an impressive number, the problem is by no means solved. A significant portion of the UK’s young people do not have the digital equipment or data to study outside of the classroom. This problem, like so many, has always been here, and the pandemic has simply exacerbated and shone a spotlight on it.

Nacro is a national Further Education provider and each year we work with around 3000 disadvantaged learners. Nearly half of our learners have some kind of identified learning disability and 70 per cent at least one or more factors of social disadvantage. At the beginning of the pandemic we asked them if they had a device they could use for learning. Half didn’t have a laptop or tablet, others were sharing devices or didn’t have data or Wi-Fi. 20 per cent also didn’t have access to a smartphone.

The gap is not just a lack of devices

But the digital divide is not just measured in a lack of laptops or tablets. Many of our learners also do not have suitable space to log in, broadband capacity or the parental support to help with online study.

Like most providers, we needed to take teaching and learning online during Covid. When we asked our students to have their cameras on, from a safeguarding and engagement perspective, we were met with a lot of reluctance. After speaking with learners and exploring the issue, we found that many didn’t want people to see into their homes, or their lives. For some of our learners, where they lived was an issue for them and naturally felt exposed.

It wasn’t just their reluctance, we also had concerns, there was privacy and safeguarding issues which came up by opening up such an intimate view into people’s lives. This was especially the case for our students who share a room with their siblings.

As a result of some of these issues, we supported learners, parents and carers on how to keep safe online and in the second lock down vulnerable learners were prioritised for face-to-face delivery.

Training for staff to understand these problems and be sensitive to their solutions is vital.

A lack of data is also a problem

Even if we could supply a learner with a device from Nacro or DfE, we received around 300 through the Government scheme, we found there was often still a barrier in terms of a lack of broadband or mobile data. Being on conference calling platforms all day can be a massive drain on data so I tried to work around that.

Through collaborative work with others, we found apps to support us, for example Genius Scan which learners could use to photograph their paperwork and upload it to be marked. In the first lockdown, we quickly got a virtual learning platform off the ground. It also meant we could set up our Education and Skills Centres so that learners could safely come in, sync their work and then head home to work offline and return to sync and submit.

Online learning cannot happen in isolation

One of the things we quickly realised was that a lot could be hidden when everything was online. It’s harder to pick up on the smaller clues that someone wasn’t coping. We arranged weekly one-to-one personal development review calls at the start of the pandemic. This was vital to ensure that any welfare or safeguarding issues were quickly picked up, and it enabled conversation about progress and to check a learner was on track and to minimise lost learning.

For some, remote learning wasn’t enough or was problematic, so we needed to be flexible and developed hard-copy packs with learners to pick up any gaps.

What could make the difference

As part of our Learn Without Limits campaign we are calling on the government to remove barriers to learning for disadvantaged young people. One of our calls is for a Digital Inclusion Guarantee. We want to see:

• A government guarantee that every young person has access to sufficient data, along with an appropriate learning device.

• This needs to be in conjunction with digitally enabling all staff, to ensure that they have the digital skills required, as well as ensuring that FE providers have the required digital infrastructure.

• All providers need to be equipped with funding to deliver all-encompassing digital learning.

• The funding for this can be incorporated within the £1,200 bursary funding.

The digital divide is real, and the problem doesn’t go away when we are in-person learning for good. Without equal access to the online world disadvantaged young people are being held back from achieving their potential. Here at Nacro, we will not accept this and will continue to fight for all young people to be able to learn without limits.

Lisa Capper, MBE, is director of education and skills at Nacro.

Nacro is currently running its Learn Without Limits campaign calling on the government to remove barriers to education for disadvantaged young people.