Page 19 - link magazine

The Link Magazine. July 1997 19

WWW.SWIADOAVflH.COffl (1n6 soon] Making computers available
to minority groups
Surfing the Internet - a big fuss about something that only
computer nerdy types do, or a new, important means of commu- Having read the article about the BBC Computers Don't Bite
nication which everybody will use with ease in the future? campaign in the May edition of The Link, I thought readers might
We're not quite sure, but The parts of the northern development like to know that the Federation of Ethnic Minorities & Organi-
Link is backing the second half of area. But there are limitations with sations (FEMO) has been running a similar campaign for the last
the question above by publishing house to house distribution. The year, writes John Patel.
parts of the magazine on our own magazine is very closely read be-
world wide web site which will be cause of its targetted news content. There are a lot of people fright- spreadsheets and databases. The
available to anybody with a com- We want to continue this close re- ened of touching computers, even results were very encouraging.
puter, wherever they are. lationship with our readers. though they may have one in the Having passed this basic course,
The Link now prints 18,500 cop- The fun aspect of electronic com- home. there was demand for more ad-
ies, with ofver 15,000 distributed munication is that there is little This leads to two classes of peo- vanced training from these stu-
to West Swindon, Haydon Wick, restriction on the space to keep ple, those that are IT literate and dents.
Woodhall Park and the different and display information. We can those that are not. Because the So, a more advanced course,
put all The Link magazine news on younger generation tends to be in leading to RSA II certificate in In-
the web site and also include news the first category, this leads to some tegrated Business Technology, is
Could you sell PCs? from right across Swindon. In fact, alienation between parents who currently running at the West
we are now looking for writers are not used to IT and the young- Swindon Technology Centre for
Hand Technologies offers computer who will report on news, views sters who are. Moreover, compu- these students.
buyers an alternative to going to a and events from other parts of the ter literacy seems to feature more If anyone, male or female, par-
store. town. and more in job specifications these ticularly from ethnic minorities,
Hand technology consultants are OK. The Internet is still a new days. are interested in undertaking train-
self employed people with experience idea to the vast majority of the Therefore, FEMO decided to do ing in computer literacy, or want
of using computers and are able people. But it has the potential to something about this problem, tar- further information, please con-
to communicate their enthusiasm to become a major force in the flow of geting ethnic minorities and par- tact FEMO on (01793) 881110 or
buyers through demonstration information alongside print over ticularly women, by providing ini- write to FEMO, c/o 1 John Street,
in the home or work place. the next few years. We want to be tially free computer literacy train- Swindon SN1 1RT.
If you get on with people and there. ing in conjunction with Swindon FEMO is a registered charity
could open up a If you have any thoughts on The College. FEMO ran two course of whose objectives are to help ethnic
potential market, Link on-line, let us know by 'phone, 60 hours each at Swindon College minorities in the fields of educa-
call Roger Ogle fax, e-mail, or good old fashioned which led to a certificate of compe- tion, employment, health and com-
on 872282. letter. Addresses on page 2. tence in word processing, munity affairs.

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