On 13 March, the National Foundation for the Elderly (Nationaal Ouderenfonds), ASML and VodafoneZiggo will launch the documentary series Welcome Online. The series will follow five elderly people who learn to use the Internet better with the aid of the free course Welcome Online. The aim of Welcome Online is to enrich the everyday life of elderly people. The five episodes can be seen on Ziggo TV, Channel 13, on Sunday 13 March from 4 pm.
A degree of digital knowledge is crucial for many activities in everyday life, such as virtual contact with loved ones or secure internet banking. However, slightly more than half of elderly people in the Netherlands (55+) do not feel digitally literate enough. According to the University of Twente, 62% of the elderly state that they need help with everyday skills, such as using digital devices like computers or smartphones. This means that elderly people often lack the skills to participate optimally in the digital society.
Expanding their world
In the documentary series Welcome Online, five elderly people learn a new digital skill. The elderly people do that independently with the help of a volunteer or via a group lesson from Welcome Online. They try a wide range of activities, such as video calling with family, searching for online recipes and installing new apps. With this practical knowledge, they increase their internet literacy and their world.
“You can live without Internet, but you will no longer be living in this day and age. You will lag behind if you can’t work with DigiD and pay or search for things on the Internet”, says Mr Van der Aa, 79 years old, Welcome Online participant. “This course makes you active and self-confident.”
All five episodes can be seen in a row on Ziggo TV, Channel 13, on Sunday 13 March from 4 pm. After that, the episodes can be watched via Welcome Online, the YouTube channels of Ziggo, ASML and the National Foundation for the Elderly, and Ziggo TV.
Practical guidelines for getting to work
“With the TV series about Welcome Online, we hope to show the considerable added value of the Internet on the everyday life of elderly people”, according to Corina Gielbert, director of the National Foundation for the Elderly. “Through the course, people are given practical guidelines with which they can get to work straight away. The stories of Wim, Margreet, Hans and Annelies, Conny and Jane show how much self-confidence and self-reliance they build with this. In this way, we hope to convince even more people to get to work.”
Welcome Online programme
The teaching programme Welcome Online was set up in 2019 and is sponsored by the National Foundation for the Elderly, ASML, Samsung and VodafoneZiggo. The programme is financed by the Vodafone Foundation. Elderly people can register for the course free of charge.