IT graduates keeping senior Londoners independent

A new business is making technology accessible for the digitally excluded in the UK by employing IT graduates to provide tuition in people’s own homes.

Student@home has been created for people who require extra help with computer related tasks and is also serving the wider community by working in partnerships with housing associations to offer assistance to residents.

As part of the business’s social enterprise, residents will be given tuition to develop the basic computer skills needed to improve their employability and financial literacy as well as improving their overall quality of life.

Nick Jenkins, a customer from Battersea, described his experience and said: “I used Student@Home to help me with a complex spreadsheet I use for managing my finances. It was the kind of problem that needed a face-to-face conversation rather than a helpline. The student not only redesigned the sheet to make it run five times faster, but spent half an hour optimising my computer. It’s a great service. Helpful, efficient and really good value.”

Helping older people in their own home get connected to ensure people can remain as independent as possible in their own homes is a key goal for the business. At the same time employees for student@home can gain some valuable paid experience in IT and tuition which will improve their employability in their chosen sector specific field.

Siavoush Redhai, a student@home employee said: “I often give computer lessons, but my most recent was really special. A reading club who have been going for 10 years wanted to start a blog to share their experiences and opinions about books. I showed them how.”

Both group tuition and one-to-one sessions are available, and can be accessed by people of all ages and levels of experience who then receive friendly, patient and practical teaching.

Members of Student@home pay a monthly fee which allows them to book hourly appointments with trained IT students for half the price of most IT support services.