The Google Digital Garage is here to upskill Londoners

Offering totally free classes in a variety of online skills, the Google Digital Garage is creating a tech revolution in the capital

Promising Londoners a chance to change their life, Google Digital Garage, in partnership with the Evening Standard's Future London project, has arrived in the capital in the most British way possible: via double-decker bus.

After huge success in UK cities such as Manchester and Leeds, the award-winning platform is bringing its workshops on digital and personal skills to London. Whether you need to brush up on social media, digital marketing or just want a reminder of how to stay safe online, Google Digital Garage has a course for you. The best part? It’s free.

The strong emphasis on accessibility is something that Google Vice President and Managing Director for the UK and Ireland Ronan Harris highlighted at this morning’s launch, ‘At Google, we’ve always been about organising the world’s information and making it universally accessible… we saw an opportunity to bring some of the work that we’ve been developing over the last number of years to the citizens of London.’

Since launching in 2015, the Digital Garage has visited over 500 UK locations and trained over 300,000 people, and some of those success stories sharing their experiences today.

Seyi Ayinla, 30, spoke to Marie Claire about the huge benefits Google Digital Garage has given her. The founder of LoveWeddingsNG, an online portal that helps Nigerian couples connect with brands and vendors for their weddings, shared her favourite take aways from the course: ‘First thing, use your data: find out who’s coming to your website and find out who your clients are… when you know who your audience are, try and find ways to bridge the gap between you and them. That could be creating a service or product, or putting on an event.’

Wildlife biologists Jessica Wise, 25, and Alex Sharp, 33, also spoke about how Google Digital Garage had helped them. As co-founders of ConservationWise, an online community encouraging sustainable choices in all aspects of life, the skills they gained with the scheme have been indispensable: ‘Building our business plan as part of the five-week Start Your Own Business course has been really amazing. The other course we did was centred on social media: as scientists we can sometimes be a bit technical with the language we use, so [Google] really helped us shape our message.’

Google’s Digital Garage bus is touring London throughout November and December, stopping in 10 locations and offering training to hundreds of people. Book in, turn up, and log on.