The overseers of the €1m fund aim to reduce the share of adults in Ireland without basic digital literacy skills from 47pc to 20pc.
The Government is inviting groups working on projects addressing digital literacy skills for adults in Ireland to apply to its latest funding call.
The call was announced today (20 March). Under it, €1m has been set aside for public, non-profit, community and voluntary organisations.
Each grant will be a maximum of €50,000. As well as digital literacy skills, the call is focused on numeracy and general literacy skills for adults.
“This fund will help support organisations carry out vital work with people on financial, or health literacy, digital skills or how to read and write,” said Minister for Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris, TD.
“I strongly encourage all of these critically important groups and organisations around the country to apply for the €50,000 grants available.”
“We all want to live in an Ireland where every adult has the necessary skills to fully engage in society and realise their full potential,” he added.
The funding is being allocated as part of a strategy called Adult Literacy for Life (ALL). The strategy was originally launched in 2021 as a 10-year plan to address the unmet provision of crucial life skills.
The ALL strategy is overseen by a cross-Government implementation group. There is an ALL National Programme Office within the Solas framework that oversees the implementation of the strategy. Solas is the state agency responsible for the delivery of further education and training services in Ireland.
The office’s team works together with the 16 regional literacy coordinators corresponding to the 16 Education & Training Boards nationwide.
The ALL strategy group aims to reduce the share of adults in Ireland without basic digital skills from 47pc to 20pc.
The director of the ALL National Programme Office, Yvonne McKenna, said that with the new funding call, the group was looking for “truly collaborative and innovative projects and groups to support”.
“We know that working together is how we best support those with oftentimes complex unmet literacy needs.”
Highlighting the collaborative aspect of the call, she said that one condition of the new fund is that there must be a minimum of two organisations per application.
Guidelines for applications can be found on ALL’s website. The closing date for applications is 5pm on Friday 14 April 2023.
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