As more and more information and services go online, digital skills are only going to become more important. It’s now part of modern life to communicate with relatives using messengers, transfer money using a smartphone application, write an email, or buy goods in an online store – for most, these are now normal, everyday actions. 

But not for everyone. Many Ukrainians cannot use digital products because they lack the sufficient level of digital literacy. In particular, 27% of those people who have not used e-services in the last year lack the digital skills to do so1. 

Most often these are older people or people from vulnerable groups who do not have access to a computer. And in addition to lacking access to information or convenient services, not having digital skills often creates problems for them at work. 

In this second series of library stories, we feature people who underwent digital literacy training at Digital Education Hubs. These seven stories show how these institutions work and how acquiring digital skills was a turning point for those who took these courses. 

Gaining computer skills makes employment more secure 

Halyna, 61, is a nurse from Cherkasy Oblast. As healthcare facilities began to transition to electronic patient care, digital skills became especially important for healthcare professionals. Unfortunately, Halyna wasn’t a confident computer user: she could only turn a computer on and off, and on her smartphone, she could only make phone calls and browse the Facebook feed. So, despite considerable work experience, she was afraid she might lose her job. 

The turning point came when she saw on Facebook an announcement about a Digital Education Hub in her local library, where anyone interested was invited to take digital literacy courses. She soon got started on mastering digital skills. 

Due to her busy work schedule, Halyna attended individual training sessions in the village public library for four months. Together with the coordinator of the hub, she learned basic digital skills with the help of an educational series from the Diia.Osvita online education platform. They also studied specific questions and issues that were relevant to Halyna’s work. 

The programme for doctors turned out to be the most difficult to master: it required independent study, consulting with the library coordinator by phone, as people outside the medical sector could not have access to this particular study programme. But Halyna persevered and was successful. 

Now she advises any of her colleagues who lack digital skills to take the courses, and some of them have also started to go to the digital hub at the library. 

"You should never be ashamed that you don't know something, or that your knowledge is not enough for the job you are doing,” Halyna says. “You should always aim for your goal, even when the path is long and difficult. After all, there are always people who are ready to help and share their knowledge.” 

Learning to use office software helps in search for new employment 

Liubov, 55, from the city of Hadiach, in Poltava Oblast, was dismissed after working as a nurse for many years. Although she found another job, she still wanted to work in her specialty. However, every position demanded at least basic computer skills, which, unfortunately, she did not have. 

Her daughter wanted to help her learn basic digital skills, but there was almost no free time, and Liubov found it difficult to master the computer by herself. Then her acquaintances advised her to take courses on mastering computer skills and office software. She began studying at the Internet centre in Hadiach’s Lesia Ukrainka Public Library. 

Together with a software engineer, she started to learn the basics: the parts of the computer, how to turn it on, how to use the mouse and keyboard, and what the desktop looks like. Then she gradually moved on learning how to use software. Since her main task would be typing, she worked a lot on the word processing programme Microsoft Word. Having mastered the basics of typing, Liubov was already able to do various practical tasks in the program. She also completed educational courses on the Diia.Osvita platform on online safety and cyber hygiene. 

The training sessions took one or two hours, and Liubov studied diligently: she always carried a notebook with her, wrote down everything she needed to remember or what the coordinator advised. Despite it being difficult to learn to use a computer, with strong will and perseverance, she was able to achieve her goal in just a month. 

After completing the course, Liubov was delighted: “I’d also advise other people who do not have computer or smartphone skills, but want to acquire them, not to be shy and ask for help from the Hub employees,” she says. 

Computer literacy opens doors to new work opportunities 

Fifty-six-year-old Andrii from Berdychiv, in Zhytomyr Oblast, was also out of work for a long time due to his lack of digital skills. Skills in operating a PC, and knowledge of Word and Excel software were required in every job description – skills and knowledge he just did not have. However, Andrii learned from an acquaintance who was studying at the local Digital Education Hub library that digital literacy was being taught there, so he asked for help. 

His individual digital literacy classes, held twice a week, lasted from June to October 2023. During this time, Andrii became a confident PC user, learning how to create Word documents, work with Excel spreadsheets, create presentations, use e-mail, and then combine all his new skills to write a resume and send it to potential employers. On the Diia.Education platform, he also completed an educational series about personal data, and later got enough points to pass a Digigram digital literacy test and obtain a certificate. 

Armed with this new knowledge, Andrii was able to expand the range of his job searches. Almost immediately he was invited to several interviews in Berdychiv, Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia. By the end of 2023, Andrii had already completed an internship at a company in Zhytomyr. 

Modern digital skills increase quality of work 

Valentyna, from the city of Oleksandriia in Kirovohrad Oblast, is a biology and chemistry teacher with over 20 years of experience. But because she was accustomed to traditional teaching methods, the rapid development of technology was making it more and more difficult for her to fire the interest and keep the attention of her students. Despite constantly taking various courses and undergoing online training, she still found it difficult to apply her knowledge in practice. 

Valentyna's school cooperates closely with the city’s libraries: Library coordinators are constantly conducting lessons, classes and training not only for students, but also for teachers. After attending a training session on digital education, Valentyna decided to go to the central library to undergo digital literacy training. 

At the library’s digital hub, she completed a number of specialised online courses for teachers on the Diia.Osvita and Digigram online education platforms. Separately, she attended a number of training sessions run by the library for teachers. Now she can easily create an engaging game for her students to help them explore or consolidate the material they have learned, and students enjoy attending her classes. This is especially important, given that due to the war students attend a lot of classes remotely. 

“I’m grateful for the training and the opportunity to improve my professional skills in the future,” Valentyna says. “In almost two years of study, I gained a lot of knowledge and self-confidence. I know what my students want during lessons, and I can make them interested, and this is the most important thing for me in my work.” 

Digital skills open up access to important information 

Olha Matvienko from the village of Maiachka in Poltava Oblast, is a family nurse. She has always had an interest in computers and the Internet, but lacked sufficient digital skills. She says of herself that she was a passive user – she could only work with a phone. 

Her lack of digital literacy was becoming a particular problem as the digitalisation of the medical field progressed. Nowadays, medical workers work a lot online with specialised programmes, such as ones for registering patients, entering information about vaccinations, and so one. All this requires the ability to use a computer. 

Having learned about digital education courses on her local library’s social media page, Olha turned to the library coordinators for help. With the support of the hub coordinator, she started with the simplest tasks, like learning to create documents and tables, using search engines and browsing web pages. After that she completed a digital literacy course for older people on the Diia.Osvita online education platform. 

Olha learned how to create, send and receive e-mails, and set up a Viber group. This was important because it meant she could more easily communicate with colleagues and patients. In addition, she discovered online courses on medical topics that helped her improve her professional skills and expand her knowledge of the field. These new skills enable her to find information on medical news, treatments and healthy lifestyles. 

Now she can work with helsi.me – a medical information system for healthcare institutions and medical portal for patients in Ukraine. Moreover, she also met lots of users with similar interests in the digital education hub. They shared experiences and taught each other, which became an important source of support and inspiration. 

Today, Olha gladly recommends studying in the library and on the Diia.Osvita online education platform to her colleagues and other people: “It’s very useful and necessary for our work,” she says. 

Learning about new digital tools helps improve professional skills 

Seventy-year-old Petro Malinich from the city of Lubny, Poltava Region, had a law degree but did not work professionally. Back in 2017, after he attended a group course on computer literacy for older people at Lubny’s V. Malyka Public Library, he became a regular user of the library. So when he found out that a Digital Education Hub had opened there, he immediately signed up for individual courses. 

He soon completed more training courses in computer literacy for older people, and became acquainted with the Diia.Osvita online education platform. Using it, he took a number of specialised courses for lawyers – such as how to use open data and online tools for remote work. 

Today, Petro uses his new digital skills to keep abreast with changes in Ukraine’s legislation, advise internally displaced persons on various issues, help people who turn to him to properly prepare documents and applications, conduct consultations for low-income and vulnerable population groups, and check accruals, pension payments and subsidies. He has helped several citizens win cases in court. 

“Online services are primarily about convenience and time saving,” says Petro. “A lot of tasks can be completed thanks to having digital skills. I would advise people of my age not to be afraid of learning new things, not to be afraid that something will not work out, that they will not be able to do something. You can! You just have to overcome your fear and try it. I hope I can be an example for them.” 

Digital literacy studies inspire choice of future profession 

For two users of the Children's Library branch of the Rozhyshche Public Library in Volyn Oblast, studying digital literacy helped them decide on their future profession. 

In wartime, the question of finding a job, improving qualifications, or acquiring a new profession has become especially relevant – and digital skills are important for all of this. The Digital Education Hub in the public library in the city of Rozhyshche has thus started introducing new services to help Ukrainians improve their level of digital knowledge for effective work and study. 

In the summer of 2023 the institution organised courses for young mothers on the topic of “Employment and professional development regardless of age.” During the classes, students watched educational videos on the Diia.Osvita online education platform, and gained the opportunity to learn about new professions and improve their digital skills. 

One course participant is Oleksandra, an internally displaced person who moved from Luhansk Oblast with her young daughter after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. As the library employees later discovered, she and another student Mariia were inspired by the courses to learn the new profession of teacher. Now Oleksandra and Mariia are students of the Faculty of Education at Volyn’s Lesia Ukrainka National University. 

How Digital Education Hubs in libraries work 

Some of the students in the stories above took courses under a joint project of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ukrainian Library Association, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine to help develop Digital Education Hubs in local libraries. 

From 2021, with the support of Sweden, the partners worked to stimulate the development of the hub network and their coordinators. For this purpose, specialised training courses were conducted for the employees of the hubs and their visitors, and events for exchanging experience and developing auxiliary tools for the work of the hub were held. The tools developed include a manual on setting up a Digital Education Hub at a library, a digital competence framework and a Digigram digital literacy test for librarians on the Diia.Osvita online education platform. An online educational course on basic digital skills for older people was also launched earlier. 

The main goal of this work is to allow as many people as possible to become technically aware and have sufficient digital skills to use modern technologies and the Internet, and for digital products to be equally accessible to all Ukrainians. 

This is the second series of stories about older people learning digital skills at Digital Education Hubs. You can read the previous series of stories that prove that it’s never too late to learn digital literacy by clicking on the link. 

The “Library Capacity Development – Digital Education Hubs” project, which started in October 2022, is implemented by the Ministry of Digital Transformation in cooperation with the Ukrainian Library Association and UNDP in Ukraine as part of the DIA Support Project, which is funded Sweden.