CityFibre supports digital inclusion in Huddersfield with family digital day
Source: CityFibre | June 10, 2019
CityFibre hosted a family digital day, in partnership with Kirklees Council and Kirklees Library, to give young people and their parents the chance to try out a range of hands-on digital activities and learn more about the exciting digital opportunities available locally.
The family digital day, which took place at the Chestnut Centre in Deighton at the end of May, saw CityFibre and its partners provide families in Huddersfield with opportunities to try out virtual reality gaming, digital toys and coding. The session also raised awareness of free digital courses available for adults and children in Kirklees, including coding lessons, digital literacy, robotics and game design sessions.
Kirklees Council supported CityFibre at the event to showcase free digital workshops run by Works Better, an employment support programme that is part funded by the European Social Fund. It supports residents in tackling barriers to finding employment, such as low confidence, childcare requirements and basic digital and IT skills.
They were joined by Step by Step and Adult Community Learning who spoke about their digital inclusion courses. Kirklees Library also attended, as well as local game developers, Ocean Spark Studios, who brought a VR headset to the event to give families a taste of their Huddersfield-based academy for children which teaches digital skills in game design as an extracurricular activity.
The Chestnut Centre is one of several community centres and libraries connected to the full fibre network in Huddersfield, which provides an ideal foundation for cutting-edge digital tools and e-learning initiatives. CityFibre’s new project will see the town’s existing network extended past almost every home and business locally, with next-generation broadband services on the network available for residents through Vodafone.
Full fibre networks use fibre optic cables for every stage of the connection from the customer’s business or home to the internet, rather than aging, capacity-constrained copper cables. This means users can experience a significantly superior and more reliable broadband service with unlimited bandwidth and gigabit-speeds.
Stephen Moore, Huddersfield City Manager for CityFibre, said: “It was a privilege to host this event and help the community find out more about the digital opportunities available to them locally, as well as generating some excitement for the skills and technologies that will define our digital future.
“The event was all about inclusivity. Full fibre connectivity enables a strong digital landscape for today and future generations. We want as many people as possible to take advantage of its potential – it was wonderful to see the children so engaged with the technology. We’re hugely grateful for the support of our partners that helped make the event such a success.”
A Kirklees Council spokesperson said: “Access to the internet has changed the way we do almost everything as a society. We have a duty to make sure that no one is left behind and that everyone has the same opportunities and ability to benefit from advances in technology.
‘’This event was a great opportunity to support local residents within their community to become more digitally aware. We wanted this event to inspire and raise aspirations of parents and the younger generation to see the possibilities that digital skills can bring to their lives.”
You can find out more about CityFibre’s Gigabit vision for Huddersfield by visiting: cityfibre.com/huddersfield and following @GigabitHudds on Twitter.
To pre-register for Vodafone’s Gigafast services visit www.vodafone.co.uk/gigafast.