Microsoft: Inclusion must be ‘front and centre’ of digital efforts

Microsoft UK’s digital skills lead has opened up the company’s work to build inclusion into the public sector.

Microsoft is working with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), where it has committed to upskilling 26,000 work coaches around accessibility skills.

“We will be delivering an initiative in partnership with the DWP to make sure that all of those work coaches understand the accessibility features in the technology that they use,” Lee Jones, digital skills lead at Microsoft UK, told TDP.

Often, the technology is there to enable people – but they don’t know it, said Jones.

Additionally, people with specific needs are frequently signposted to a specialist disability service rather than their work coach being empowered to help them directly.

“And that’s only because there’s a lack of understanding as to what the technology can do,” said Jones. “You can turn on captions within a call, you can have things read aloud. If you’re dyslexic, you can change the way in which the information is presented to you. If English isn’t your first language, you can have that translated.

“As a work coach I can say ‘no problem, we can change the way in which it’s delivered’, or ‘do you realise you can have all the information read aloud to you?’ Or ‘you can just speak to the device, it will do everything for you’. That’s going to make you more productive, and you can take that skill set into a job board where not only does it create that inclusive culture within the DWP, but it also means those workers have that transferable skill, and they have the knowledge to help the customers that they’re working with. And that’s the whole point – how do we build inclusion into public sector so it’s front and centre?

There’s also a huge focus at the moment around digital inclusion, said Jones.

“Covid has accelerated the digital divide; there’s so many people that don’t have access to connectivity or devices, so as much work that we do around skills is one thing but if you don’t have a device or a broadband connection, or even the motivation, then how are you even going to get into that space?”

Getting back into the workplace

Jones’ role is divided into two: ensuring public sector organisations get the digital skills that they need, while helping to support those organisations with upskilling citizens. She is also working with the Greater London Authority (GLA) to help people get the digital skills that they need to move into jobs to help them improve their opportunities and drive economic recovery.

“There’s been a huge impact from COVID with regards to furloughed individuals, those who’ve been made redundant, young people who haven’t had opportunities to move into the workplace. So Microsoft is working with public sector organisations on delivering resources and skill initiatives to those people so that they can get back into the workplace,” said Jones.

“Also to use those digital skills across all different sectors, because in the public sector, civil servants have to have those skills so that they can effectively deliver the services that they need to citizens as well.”