Digital inclusion remains one of the defining social challenges of our time. According to the Good Things Foundation’s Digital Nation 2025 reporting, 7.9 million people in the UK lack the essential digital skills needed for everyday life – limiting access to employment, public services, education and healthcare in a digital-first society.

Addressing this challenge is central to how we deliver social value alongside clients and communities. As a leader in digital transformation, Capgemini’s ambition is to help make technology an opportunity for everyone and to bridge the digital divide in our society. Our partnership with Digital Unite sits at the heart of how we do so.

In the first of this two-part series exploring said partnership, Sally Caughey, UK Head of Digital Inclusion at Capgemini, unpacks how it has evolved, why it has become such a critical element of our social value commitments, and how it brings together the public, private and voluntary sectors to drive genuine, place-based impact.

A partnership with true purpose

Our journey with Digital Unite began in 2020, at a moment when the COVID-19 pandemic exposed and accelerated digital inequality across the UK. While our original ambition had been to run in-person events to inspire colleagues to use their digital skills within their communities, lockdown required a rapid rethink. Together with Digital Unite, we co-created Inspire – an awareness-based e‑learning module designed to help our people become confident digital champions, capable of supporting friends, family, neighbours and community groups with everyday digital needs.

Since then, the partnership has matured significantly. What started as an internal awareness initiative has grown into a long-term, strategic collaboration that combines:

  • Skills-based volunteering, enabling Capgemini colleagues to share practical digital skills and confidence
  • Expanding awareness of digital inclusion with Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE), Public Sector, and client partners, through Inspire training delivered externally
  • Place-based programmes, supporting local digital inclusion ecosystems through the Let’s Get Digital model (more on that later)

This work builds on Capgemini’s broader digital inclusion programme, and has been scaled through client collaborations where Social Value commitments enable us to extend that impact further in communities across the UK.

Why Digital Unite is a vital partner for Capgemini

Digital Unite is a social enterprise that has dedicated over 30 years to addressing digital inclusion. Combining that deep expertise and an ability to connect national ambition with local delivery, their work spans frontline community support, practitioner networks and thought leadership on how organisations can deliver social value with genuine impact.

Crucially, our partnership brings together Digital Unite’s evidence-led approach with Capgemini’s people, skills and client relationships. This includes sustained volunteering, participation in Digital Unite’s wider digital champion networks, and the co-design and delivery of Let’s Get Digital programmes that respond to local needs.

Over the course of the partnership to date, over 2,900 Capgemini and client volunteers have engaged with Digital Unite’s Inspire digital inclusion awareness course, enabling them to support thousands of people in local communities to take first steps towards digital confidence. This starts with helping people already in their networks – friends, family, colleagues; then via volunteers supporting network meet-ups with “kit bag” sessions on selected topics such as staying safe online, using LinkedIn, and practical AI tools. It also means we can own and scale our digital inclusion programme through our people, without needing to rely on outside facilitators.

This blend of funding, skills and collaboration across sectors is what makes the partnership both distinctive and effective.

So, what is Let’s Get Digital?

Let’s Get Digital is Capgemini and Digital Unite’s place-based digital inclusion programme, designed to help communities support people who lack the digital skills essential to participate in an increasingly digital-first society.

Put simply, it works by setting up a local Digital Champions Network of organisations and community partners who can provide practical, day-to-day digital support. Those organisations’ staff and volunteers are trained (through a “train-the-trainer” model delivered by Digital Unite and Capgemini) to become Digital Champions, so they can confidently help others with everyday digital tasks and build sustainable local capability instead of relying on one-off, short-term interventions. A local project lead from Digital Unite encourages, supports and connects the organisations – and helps grow capacity not just in members of Let’s Get Digital, but also in other local organisations who might not be in the right place to join Let’s Get Digital but want to combat digital exclusion.

Capgemini and Digital Unite first launched Let’s Get Digital in West Cumbria in 2022, working with major West Cumbrian nuclear decommissioning and waste management site, Sellafield. Currently, 18 organisations are involved, with 28 project managers and 68 Digital Champions (including Inspire training).

Next, we headed to Durham, working in partnership with the Home Office to build a network that now supports 12 active community organisations, with eight more onboarding. The programme launched with an Inspire session that reached 50 participants, 100% of whom said they would recommend the training.

Coming up: Let’s Get Digital North East

Most recently, the programme has grown again, with a new focus on the North East of England, centred on Newcastle. Taking place on Thursday 23rd April, the Let’s Get Digital North East event will bring together:

  • Capgemini and Digital Unite
  • Public sector partners
  • VCSE organisations from across the region

Hosted by Capgemini’s Accelerated Solutions Environment (ASE), the day will focus on inspiring and enabling action on digital inclusion through:

  • Practical workshops
  • First-hand stories from digital inclusion practitioners
  • Networking across sectors
  • Information on how organisations can engage with and benefit from the Let’s Get Digital programme

Let’s Digital North East is our significant next step in growing a regional digital inclusion ecosystem – aligning public sector priorities, community expertise and corporate capability behind a shared ambition.

Looking ahead

Our partnership with Digital Unite illustrates how social value commitments can move beyond statements into sustained, collaborative action. From Inspire training to Let’s Get Digital programmes, our joint work continues to evolve in response to local needs, client priorities and the lived experience of digitally excluded communities.

Stay tuned for the follow-up blog in this series, where we’ll reflect on what happens at the Let’s Get Digital North East event itself – sharing insights from the day, voices from participating charities and community organisations, and a closer look at the programme in action.

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