On Road's new mobile training centre funded by UK Online & Nominet

Many project managers, trainers and youth workers in our line of work will be familiar with empty seats on training days or an initial surge of interest in workshops followed by dwindling numbers in the following days...

There are lots of reasons for this but we often find that formal training rooms aren't often the perfect fit for a lot of the people we train due to, for example:

• Lack of experience of formal education
• Lack of confidence
• Fear of technology 
• Fear of discrimination

On some projects like Savvy Chavvy for example, we ended up doing training in youth clubs - and even on a bus - with our own laptops because training like this is often more effective and sometimes more likely to encourage attendance. Whoever you are, you're more likely to relax in an environment you're comfortable in.

It's for that reason that we applied for the Community Outreach Grant from UK Online with backing from the Nominet Trust. Their funding will pay for 5 laptops, 5 cameras and a projector so that we can set up and train people on their own turf. Wherever there's a room, access to the internet, and some coffee (!), we'll be able to deliver social media and citizen journalism training. 

We're delighted to say that we've been successful and we will be piloting our new kit with the Single Homeless Project. We've already been supporting them with the set up of their blog Unheard Holler, run by people who have experienced addiction and homelessness. This new set of training dates will support 4 different SHP projects across London to capture a series of videos and written blogs in response to the recent riots in England. It's something that a lot of their clients have a lot of strong feelings about and it will be fascinating to support them with capturing this material.

Get in touch if your group or organisation would like to hire our mobile training centre. You'll pay for the trainer and provide a room with wifi. We'll bring everything else.