ECS supports young learners through #wemakeICTpossible campaign
A leading engineering services provider to the water, energy and environmental sectors, ECS Engineering Services, has donated to the #wemakeICTpossible campaign, which provides much needed ICT resources to children and their families in the Mansfield and Ashfield area. The campaign aims to reduce digital poverty, ensuring that learners can access school work during the pandemic and that there is a local easing of the digital poverty issue.
The #wemakeICTpossible campaign is a scheme to help the high number of children and young people without access to a computer, laptop, tablet and the internet outside of school. At some schools, it is estimated that 30% of pupils can’t access this equipment. Accepting both monetary and ICT equipment donations – the campaign will then award ICT support to local schools for children and young people that need it most.
Clark Williamson, Contracts Director at ECS, said: “We are delighted to be supporting the #wemakeICTpossible campaign. These are challenging times for everyone, especially young learners, so we felt it was very important to donate to this local cause. We offer apprenticeships to young people and know how successful they can be, so we wanted to help support learning in Nottinghamshire further.”
The campaign was created by local business leaders Gary Jordan (MD GMJ Solutions and Chair of Mansfield and Ashfield 2020), Martin Rigley MBE (MD Lindhurst Engineering and Chair of Discover Ashfield) and Katie Cooper-Lewis (Director – Grace Consultancy).
The founders of #wemakeICTpossible said: “Children and young people have been and continue, in places, to have to learn from home. However, many of them do not have the resources to do so and are at great risk of falling behind.
“We cannot express how important technology is to a child’s education in this modern era. Only a few weeks ago, technology enabled us to continue to support and judge a Dragon Den’s programme at a local school. Without technology in this current climate, none of that would have been possible. We have learned from the experience just as much as the students, who already have special educational needs.
The campaign strapline is “digital poverty in children will and does lead to digital poverty in adults”
Former ECS MD Gary Jordan stated that without the fantastic support of local business and their charitable contributions out campaign would be that much harder. “We know times are difficult, but with the biggest please, if you can donate a spare £5 or have old ICT equipment lying around, please donate to this fantastic cause and let’s help our local children and young people and protect our future”.
You can find out more on Facebook at wemakeICTpossible, on Twitter wemakeictpossible and Instagram wemakeictpossible.
If you would like to support the #wemakeICTpossible campaign, monetary donations can be made via https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/wemakeictpossiblenotts-1, also can be donated to Gary Jordan contacted at [email protected].