Sunshine Coast based The Training Collective, a spin-off company of The Creative Collective, has taken out the hotly contested Access & Digital Skills category at the prestigious 2014 Australia New Zealand Internet Awards (ANZIAs) in recognition of its Get Up To Speed program.
Category finalists included the Australian Communications and Media Authority Cyber Safety program, iiNet and the Deaf Society of NSW.
Founder and CEO of The Training Collective, Yvette Adams said the win was a real victory for the Sunshine Coast training organisation which has continued to offer the online program for the past 18 months without any government funding or other sponsorships.
Ms Adams said the Get Up To Speed program had helped more than 650 people across Australia and New Zealand gain essential digital skills and awareness.
“It’s such rewarding work because we know we are making a real difference to so many people’s lives. We’ve had people aged from 17 to 70 do the program. We’ve worked with people in major metropolitan cities from big corporations through to start ups and people in rural and remote communities.
“We’ve helped very non technical people, and very tech savvy people do the program, and they all get something out of it which makes it a very unique program. But even more powerful is that each of the people who do the program in turn help many others in their region with their new found knowledge and skills – their schools, committees, friends, family and colleagues.”
Ms Adams said while individual staff had previously been recognised, this week’s ANZIA award was the first time her team was recognised for its work.
“We’re hoping that this win will give the program the boost it needs to continue to be offered into the future and that we may be able to secure new funding sources to keep the program at an accessible price point for the many thousands of Australians and New Zealanders who are struggling to keep up with the digital age, and need this essential digital up-skilling to survive.”
Intake 6 of the 12-week Get Up To Speed online program started on 16 August. For more details visit: http://www.thetrainingcollective.com.au/guts.
