UK Fund for Digital Skills Initiatives Set to Launch
Funding is available to UK organisations for initiatives to build the confidence of people most impacted by the digital divide.
A new UK fund which will provide grants to organisations leading initiatives for adults impacted by the digital divide is set to open late June.
Applications will be accepted from:
- Entrepreneurs, teams or organisations that want to apply their talent and technology to address UK vocational learning issues
- Start-ups, early-stage ventures or teams working within an existing large organisation and looking to develop a radically new approach
Organisations must be registered, including registered charities, community interest companies, social enterprises, not-for-profits, private companies, community associations, FE colleges and public bodies.
Eligible projects must have an impact on learners disproportionately affected by the digital divide and further exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and be able to evidence their choice of user group on that basis. Projects must have already done some initial discovery thinking to build relationships with a group or groups of learners that can be evidenced to be experiencing digital disadvantage and have clear issues of lack of confidence at some point in the journey into work.
The fund offers applicants an initial £10,000 grant for the Define phase, followed by:
- Activate grants of between £15,000 and £50,000 to test early stage ideas
- Impact grants of up to £150,000 for solutions which can deliver benefit to a large number of learners
The fund will open for applications on 29 June 2021, and close at the deadline of 29 July 2021 (17:00 BST).
