Credit: Kirsty O'Connor/PA Archive/PA Images

In the last three years, the Home Office has increased the range of digital and IT courses it offers to staff and has seen a big surge in the number of employees undertaking training.

A Freedom of Information request from the Parliament Street think tank finds that, in the 2016/17 year, the department offered staff 11 different digital skills courses. A total of 971 workers took one of the courses during the year.

Since then, the number of courses on offer has shot up to 27. Some 3,214 staff signed up for one of the training programmes in 2018/19 – a more-than-threefold increase in the space of two years.

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The Home Office’s Windows 10 and Office 2016 e-Book course was the most popular offering last year, with 1,182 civil servants taking part. 

Other courses on offer cover areas such as working with spreadsheets, using social media, and improving the accessibility of IT. Courses titled Basic digital skills and Working more digitally are also available.

Sheila Flavell, chief operating officer of IT recruitment specialist FDM Group, welcomed the findings of the think tank’s research.

“It’s encouraging to see a major government department investing heavily in upskilling workers with the latest digital skills and IT expertise,” she said. “Technology has a crucial role to play in delivering faster, more efficient public services, whether that’s fighting crime or managing personal details of citizens.”