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Thousands to get free digital training so everyone has the chance to shop around for cheaper deals online

ended 10. December 2025

Overnight, the government announced that thousands of people across the UK will get free digital training through 80 locally run projects, funded by an £11.7 million Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund, so more people can get online to shop around for cheaper deals, book NHS appointments and access jobs. The programme will back schemes from e-sports-based skills training for disadvantaged young people to NHS app sessions for older people, as well as devices and data for the homeless, with funding shared across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to tackle the digital divide nationwide. Have a read of the official statement >> here << and then whizz across your thoughts. A few optional Qs below.

  • Does a one-off £11.7 million fund look serious compared with the scale of the UK’s digital divide, or is this more about political signalling?
  • Will free digital skills training actually cut people’s bills on things like food, energy and home insurance, or is the impact likely to be marginal?
  • Could a push to get everyone online risk sidelining people who can’t or don’t want to use digital services, especially for essential things like healthcare and benefits?

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Mitali Deypurkaystha
AI Governance Strategist & CMO at AISensa
I welcome any investment that widens digital inclusion. Helping people gain the skills and confidence to navigate online services is essential in a society where so much now depends on digital access.

But we must be careful: digital training cannot become a convenient narrative that shifts the cost-of-living burden onto individuals, as if people are struggling simply because they aren’t clicking the right deals. The issue isn’t a lack of digital effort; it’s the structural systems and price-setters shaping the landscape.

Digital inclusion matters, but it must sit alongside fair markets, responsible tech design and protections for the most vulnerable, not replace them.
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Helen Llewellyn
Founder at Simple Advice Ltd t/a Elemental Tribe
This is not so much about helping people find deals as helping people accept digital ID. To have digital ID people need to be digital literate.

Governments have no interest in helping people find better deals.
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Rohit Parmar-Mistry
Founder at Pattrn Data
Let’s stop confusing 'digital inclusion' with 'digital coercion'. While using local community partners is the right method, the government’s message is concerning. By linking this funding to 'shopping around for cheaper deals', the state subtly shifts the burden of the cost-of-living crisis onto individuals.

The implication is clear: if you can’t afford your bills, it’s not because costs are high, but because you lack the skills to click the right buttons. It attempts to mask systemic economic issues with a tech plaster.

Furthermore, £11.7m split across 80 projects averages just £146k per scheme. In the context of national infrastructure, that is a fiscal rounding error. We are asking charities to perform miracles with pennies.
Instead of training people to navigate hostile digital systems for the NHS or benefits, we should ask why those systems are so complex they require training courses. True inclusion means technology is a helpful tool, not a barrier to basic civil rights.
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Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
Before we celebrate "digital inclusion," maybe fix the fact that being online often means being bombarded with dark patterns designed to make you spend more, not less.