Starting in Worcester
AYF Digital Pathways is a free programme for people in Worcester who are out of work, education or training. Each person gets the equipment, the skills, a mentor and a year of real project experience, and leaves with proof of what they can do.
The problem
1 in 8
Almost one in eight 16 to 24 year-olds in the UK is not in education, employment or training.
Source: ONS
Years
Time out of work or education at that age raises the risk of unemployment and low pay for years afterwards.
Millions
of UK adults lack the essential digital skills most jobs now take for granted.
Source: Lloyds Consumer Digital Index
Short courses already exist. What most people are missing is a laptop, real time, and someone who stays with them long enough for it to stick. That is the gap this programme fills.
What it is
Twelve months with the same small group and the same mentor. Long enough to learn properly, and long enough for confidence to come back.
Deliberately small. Everyone is known by name, nobody disappears at the back, and the pace adjusts to each person.
The laptop, the software and the AI tools come with the programme. There is nothing to bring and nothing to pay.
People learn websites, automation, data, research and practical AI by doing real pieces of work for real local organisations, supervised all the way.
People arrive through organisations that already know them and keep any support they already have. We do the digital part, not everything.
Each person leaves with a portfolio of finished work, a reference and introductions. We do not promise anyone a job. We make one realistic.
The shape of the year
Everyday digital skills, research, problem-solving and safe, sensible use of AI. Nothing assumed.
Try real areas of digital work: websites, automation, data, content. Keep what fits, drop what does not.
Supervised projects for real local organisations, with briefs, feedback and finished results.
Portfolio, reference, introductions, applications. The next step is a job, education or freelance work.
The structure is shared. The speed is not: people start from different places, and the programme moves at the pace of the person.
Why it works
The hard part is rarely the technology. It is kit, confidence, money and trust. Each part of the design answers one of them.
No laptop, no software and no money for either stops most people before they start. Here that is solved on day one, for everyone.
Confidence lost over years does not come back in a two-week course. A year with people who do not give up on you is what changes things.
Employers trust what they can see. A working website, a running automation and a solved problem say more than an attendance record.
People are referred by organisations they already trust and keep that support throughout. We stay in our lane: the digital part.
Where this is now
Get involved
If you support people who could benefit, have a real digital problem a learner could work on, or can offer funding, kit, mentoring or a next step, we would like to hear from you.