Small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in Edinburgh have been given the chance to learn vital digital skills for free thanks to a partnership between BT and Google Digital Garage.

The sessions are part of BT’s new Skills for Tomorrow programme which aims to provide digital skills training to one million small business owners and employees by 2025.

Spaces are still available for the Google Digital Garage event on Friday, 13 March, at The Royal College of Physicians, 11 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 1JQ. It will run from 9am until 1pm.

Most customers look first to see if a business has a website or online presence, and they want to interact with their local businesses digitally, at any time. The free event will provide expert advice on how to use social media to make your business grow, how to build a social media strategy and how to measure success. It will also cover how to get started with analytics; including understanding the role of web analytics and the insights available from different platforms and how to interpret them.

The UK faces a significant digital skills gap, which is having a major impact on the country.  The rapid pace of change is reportedly leaving people behind – with as many as 11.3m UK adults and 10% of the UK workforce lacking basic digital skills. This digital skills gap is costing the UK economy an estimated £63bn a year, according to BT’s latest Digital Impact and Sustainability Report

Based on research conducted by YouGov on behalf of Google, the majority of SMEs (51%) think that the digital skills gap is growing. What’s more, the majority (51%) also said they think their business would benefit from digital skills training, to fully take advantage of the opportunities presented by the digital economy, e-commerce and digital marketing.

Mark Dames, head of policy, commented: “A significant number of small businesses across the country lack the essential digital skills they need, which risks widening social and economic divides. This workshop is part of BT’s new Skills for Tomorrow programme, which aims to help close that gap by providing digital skills training to one million small business owners and employees by 2025, working with partners such as Google Digital Garage.

“We believe the key to helping SMEs thrive is empowering them with the right digital tools to help grow their business and better position them for the future.”

For information about further events visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/skills-for-tomorrow-edinburgh-registration-91131774591