UK Government Plans To Make Britain A Digital Nation
This year, the British government unveiled plans to make the UK a “digital nation”. Essentially, it’s a scheme aimed at improving our digital skills as a country, and as you might expect it’s a complex, ambitious strategy. This week at 21 Digital we’ve made it our mission to break it down for you.
The ‘Digital Nation’ – What’s It All About?
Today we all live in a digital age, and the world online is more important than ever to our economy. Modern companies need to have a strong Internet presence in order to stay competitive – not just in Britain, but against international businesses too.
With that in mind, the government aims to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a digital business, test new technology, and carry out advanced research projects.
Their aim is for people without digital skills to get training free of charge, in the same way that people are entitled to basic education when it comes to literacy and maths.
The government is also investing millions into digital infrastructure, making sure that we can always count on our the speed and reliability of our internet connections.
Breaking Down The Numbers
Some of the UK’s biggest companies have already been recruited to help carry out this mission, and some pretty impressive names have already stepped up to the plate. Lloyds, Google, British Telecom and Barclays are just a few of the organisations already on board so far.
- 5 million is how many people, charities and companies Lloyds Banking Group plan to help with face-to-face digital skills training sessions by 2020
- 1 million is how many people Barclays plan to help with general digital skills by the end of 2017, as well as teaching basic coding to at least 45,000 children
- £1 billion is how much the government is spending in total on digital infrastructure
- 500,000 is the number of children BT aims to help by expanding its Barefoot Computing Project, developing early computational thinking skills.
And that’s not all:
- Google plan to launch a Summer of Skills programme for people living in coastal towns, partially to help boost their tourism and growth.
- The HP Foundation is going to bring a free online learning platform called HP Life to the UK, aimed at improving the digital skills of disadvantaged groups.
We could go right down the list, but we think you’ve probably got the idea. They’re big plans, and the government sounds like they’re dead set on achieving them.
“There should be no digital divide – every individual and every business should have the skills and confidence to make the most of digital technology and have easy access to high-quality internet wherever they live, work, travel and learn.”
- Karen Bradley, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, Sport
Great For Clients, Great For Business
As you might expect – being a digital agency – we think this is fantastic news here at 21 Digital. Online shopping continues to be a force to be reckoned with, especially when it comes to mobile purchases.
Just last month (according to the British Retail Consortium) more than 20% of UK retail sales were made online. What’s more, British shoppers spent more via mobile last Christmas than any other European nation; 60% of online visits to retailers were made on a mobile device, according to Adobe’s Digital Index.
With more people than ever buying goods and services online, the digital world is one that today’s businesses can’t afford to forget.
On that note, our digital experts are committed to helping your website be the very best it can be. Whether you want to drive more sales, increase the size of your audience, or just want to improve the look of your company website, we’re here to help. Check out our digital case studies to see what we’ve done for previous happy customers, or give us a call on 01282 660 550.
