The future of tech must be inclusive and diverse for everyone to benefit.

Helping you make the most of life

The future is here­, and it’s digital. But not everyone is getting the benefits that tech can offer. Around 14 million people in the UK lack basic digital skills.

To unlock the transformative power of technology, it needs to be available and accessible to everyone. But it’s skills and training that help people make the most of tech.

BT Group's digital skills programme is free and designed to help people across the UK – from jobseekers to older and digitally excluded to help boost their confidence and understanding of digital tools and technology to make daily life better and realise their long-term ambitions.

Building on our Digital Skills resources and partnerships, we've reached a total of 19.3 million people with digital skills support since 2014/15. And we're aiming to help 25 million by 2026.  

Creating an inclusive digital world

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people reached with help to improve digital skills since 2014/15.

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small businesses and their employees upskilled through our digital skills programmes

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homes and businesses reached with full fibre.

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We’ve set bold ambitions to build a diverse and inclusive BT Group.

Championing digital inclusion

We’re working towards an inclusive digital future for the UK by making our networks and tech available, affordable and accessible to everyone. ​

We want to support families worst hit by the cost of living crisis. We’re the market leader in social tariffs, currently helping around 1 million low-income and vulnerable customers through affordable fibre broadband and calls. 

Our Home Essentials social tariff lets customers on Universal Credit get discounted broadband. Our EE Basics mirrors the offer for eligible mobile customers. 

Openreach’s ‘Connect the Unconnected’ scheme waives connection fees for vulnerable customers, via their communications provider. 

Working with charity partner Home-Start UK, we’re also supporting the most socially excluded households with thousands of laptops, mobiles and free broadband vouchers. 

We’ve partnered with UK charity AbilityNet to deliver nationwide training to improve the digital skills of 4,000 people aged 65+.

Investing in our networks

We’re working to develop the right digital infrastructure so no one gets left behind. Our full fibre broadband already passes 10.3m homes and businesses, including 3.1m in rural locations. We have the UK’s largest and fastest 4G mobile network and we’re rolling out 5G across the country. We’ve committed to reach 90% of the country by 2028.

Here for you

Our Here for You website brings together BT’s wide range of products, services and support for those who need extra help in one easy-to-navigate place. It includes information about the Home Essentials social tariff, the latest accessibility options and priority services for customers with long-term illnesses or disabilities, and advice for dealing with scams. 

Senior skills

Around 61% of the older community still do not regularly use the internet. We want to change this. We don’t just want to give older people the digital skills and confidence they need though, we want to help inspire and motivate them to unlock the possibilities of being online.

Read how we are helping older and digitally excluded people make the most out of life in a digital world.

Skilling the nation

Employability skills for young people

We're bridging the gap between education and employment by making sure children and young people are included in the UK's digital skills agenda. 

This year, 189 young people attended our work experience events, learning the digital and employability skills vital in today’s workplaces. 124 of them went on to join our apprenticeship scheme. 

Our colleague volunteers delivered 15 Skills for Work Bootcamps for nearly 500 11-13 year-old school pupils. The bootcamps support teachers by encouraging STEM study subjects and careers. 

We support the National Cyber Security Centre’s CyberFirst programme. It aims to encourage school pupils into cyber and tech careers, hosting events for over 2,000 pupils in the UK.

Digital talent pipeline

As part of our employability skills offering, we’re developing digital talent for BT Group and the whole UK. We’re building a Digital Campus (a one-stop learning shop and community) so our people can be at the cutting edge of digital tech.

Together with other big UK employers, we’re an Avado FastFutures programme partner. We’re helping a diverse range of young people (ages 18-24) get into digital roles, supporting the government’s skills agenda. So far, it’s helped over 7,000 young people build their networks, gain experience and accelerate their careers. Our colleagues are involved – mentoring over 300 participants this year. We’re the programme’s lead sponsor for the second year in a row.

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helped through Avado FastFutures programme 

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business and employees reached with digital skills support this year 

Supporting small businesses

We’re helping businesses unlock their potential through our free digital skills programme:

  • We’ve helped upskill a further 465k businesses and their employees this year.
  • Our webinar series provides businesses with digital skills help and advice, on topics from digital marketing and social media strategy to cybersecurity.
  • Our ‘Let’s Talk About’ video series offered practical tips from successful entrepreneurs.
  • We sponsored the 10th anniversary Small Business Saturday Tour – providing support through mentoring sessions and webinars across the 23 UK locations visited

Child online safety

With so many children and young adults owning their own mobile phones, it puts them at risk of harm. That’s why we launched EE PhoneSmart – the first phone safety licence for kids – with Internet Matters and other experts. We’ve issued more than 1,300 PhoneSmart licences to children since launch. Over 3,800 children have signed up to the scheme’s online educational training. EE teamed up with Beano to create a series of animated comics and videos on how kids can learn to stay safe and be kind online. These have already given advice to more than 400k parents. 

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PhoneSmart licences issued to children  

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kids signed-up to the scheme’s online educational training 

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parents reached with advice 

EE Hope United

Tackling online hate

Our Hope United campaign in EE aims to deliver positive societal change. Hope United is a team of elite professional football players from all four home nations brought together to tackle online hate. So far, it’s helped educate 7.4m people on how to be good digital citizens. The award-winning “Not her problem” campaign tackled sexist hate and ran during the UEFA Women’s Euros 2022.  

Partnering with charities on digital skills

With our partner The British Asian Trust, BT India has reached over 1 million girls since 2019 with digital skills, STEM career guidance and job opportunities. We’ve also helped launch a smartphone library and helped match 12,000 mentors to mentees through a BT-developed app.

We’ve partnered with UNICEF to enable digital skills development around the world via the Digital Learning Passport. The passport is a tech platform providing schoolchildren with online and offline access to quality educational resources. Since its 2020 launch, it’s helped more than 2 million users in 23 countries.

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girls reached in India with digital skills, STEM career guidance and job opportunities

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users of the Digital Learning Passport in 23 countries