Everyone’s online these days, right? Wrong. In fact, 16 million people in the UK aged 15 and over still don’t have Basic Online Skills – yet 90% of all jobs will require ICT skills by 2015.
Just 33% of small to medium-sized companies have a digital presence and only 14% sell their products online. But the more digitally enabled a company is, the faster it tends to grow – and here in the UK we’re twice as likely as the OECD average to buy goods online.
Charities are among the organisations with the most to gain from upping their digital skills, yet one-fifth have little or no web presence and 50% need help with web design and social media.
The potential is huge and it’s growing by the day. Now’s the time to start working together to reap the full benefits of making the UK the most digitally skilled nation in the world.
16 million
adults in the UK don’t have Basic Online Skills
50% of charities
need help with web design and social media
33% or just 1 in 3
SMEs have a digital presence
The 16 million people in the UK without Basic Online Skills are a wide and disparate group. Barriers include economic, social and physical issues.
| Skills* | Communicate | Find things | Share personal information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Activity | Send and receive emails | Use search engine Browse the internet |
Fill out an online application form e.g.
|
| Keeping safe online | Identify and delete spam | Evaluate which websites to trust | Evaluate which websites to trust Set privacy settings |
*These Basic Online Skills have been developed by Go ON UK with the help of key academics from LSE, LBS, Ofcom and OII. They are being used as a basic standard of literacy for Go ON UK Partners.