Today, representatives from the Greater Manchester's digital sector will descend on the Museum of Science and Industry for the GM Mayor's Greater Manchester Digital and Tech Summit, led by Andy Burnham, with input from some of the biggest new tech companies in the region.
Meanwhile, a new Salford City Council report estimates that 30,000 people in the city do not have the five basic digital skills, which range from sending an email, to browsing the net, to posting on social media forums.
The five skills are defined by digital skills charity Go ON as 'Managing information, Problem solving, Communicating, Creating and Transacting'. And the Good Things Foundation, which is about to be awarded a £180,000 contract to gear up 7,800 of Salford's digitally excluded, states that, amongst other things, it will help residents to 'send and receive emails, browse the internet, use a search engine, fill out online forms and search for jobs'.
Salford Council states that it will be expecting "a significant return on investment through this programme in terms of direct savings to the council through channel shift and indirect return through wider factors across the public sector".
The Council wants to get residents to communicate with it online, in its so-called 'Transformation programme', which seems to be about axing jobs where staff speak to the public...
The Council report states that PwC, its cuts consultants, have estimated "the cost savings associated with moving face-to-face transactions to telephone and online" at a massive £1.64million 'once all 7,800 residents have been upskilled', which seems well excessive.
There's also the wider factors of digital inclusion, which number better chances of getting a job, savings through doing stuff online, and social benefits of being connected to the online community. These 'indirect' benefits are costed at £3.4million by PwC.
The payments to Good Things Foundation will largely be by results...50% will be paid up front, with a further 25% on achieving 3,000 residents reached and the final 25% on achieving 7,800 residents reached.
The 30,000 figure of digitally excluded residents is merely an estimate, but indicates just how many people in the community are being left behind. It's something for attendees of the Greater Manchester Mayor's Tech Summit to be thinking about today...
For an interview with GM Mayor Andy Burnham on the community benefits of the summit see previous Salford Star article – click here
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