Pub is the hub
Click and connect: East Sussex pub attracts customers with lessons in digital skills
The Royal Oak & Castle in Pevensey, which earlier this year launched a book exchange programme, hosted seven 90-minute sessions covering topics including how to use the internet securely, online shopping and ways to keep in touch with people.
Licensee Debby Fitton provided complimentary coffee and cake during the lessons, which were provided for free by the Barclays staff known as ‘digital eagles’ who volunteer their time to explain the online and social media world to colleagues and the public.
'It's not about making more money'
“Many of the trainees were new to the pub and some have taken food menus away with them, but it’s not about making more money; for us it’s about investing in our future,” Fitton said.
“One lady who came each week said that she had never walked into anywhere on her own before. She lives alone and was very nervous about coming in for the first time – but now that she has she says that she would feel confident enough to pop in for a coffee and sit in a corner with a magazine. If that’s the most that we get from running this course then it has been worth it.”
Zoe Clarke from Wealden District Council who co-ordinated the course with Pub is The Hub, an organisation for rural pubs and licensees looking to broaden their range of services, added: “The Barclays Eagles Team make these sessions friendly and are a great way to build confidence using computers and the internet. We’ve already been asked for another course at the pub with two other pubs in the pipeline for 2017.”
