Blackpool and The Fylde College partners with Facebook to offer free Digital Skills Training

Blackpool and The Fylde College  (B&FC) has partnered with Facebook to offer free B&FC Digital Skills Training programmes.

The course is aimed at people between the ages of 18 and 30 who want to improve existing skills or learn new digital skills to help them succeed professionally, personally or both. The four-hour sessions provide a crash course in key areas of digital literacy, including innovation, security, web presence and social marketing.

David Seddon, curriculum manager in Computing and Digital Technologies at B&FC, said: “This is an excellent opportunity to learn some new skills which can develop your digital knowledge and experience, free of charge.

“For an individual the session on becoming more secure online might be what they are looking for whereas the marketing and web analytics skills might be perfect for someone looking to start their own business.

“The session on design thinking will assist people currently working in a range of roles and will also be really interesting to those seeking new or different opportunities. I think there’s something for everyone.”

The key focus areas of the four hour sessions are:

• Becoming safer online – understanding dangers of the web and learning how to protect an individual or business
• Making the web work for you – looking at how accessible the web can be for everyone by exploring different tools and how to use them, including search optimisation and web analytics. See how developing a winning online presence is relevant for an individual or their business
• Innovation – a chance to come up with the next idea or prototype. This session will ignite a digital mind-set to come up with solutions to problems in life and work. The session will focus on teaching the techniques of innovation called design thinking, a process which is used by tech giants worldwide.

David added: “By taking this course, you may even find you have hidden talents in IT and computing and wish to take this further.

“If we feel people have the required skills, we have committed to giving people an opportunity to join one of our FE or degree-level programmes following completion of this course, which could see them embark on a rewarding new career path.”

The sessions will take place every Wednesday between 12.30pm and 4.30pm for the remainder of the academic year.

To book a free place on the Facebook and B&FC Digital Skills Training programme call 01253 504343.