# e-Learning Foundation Launches Corporate Partnership Scheme

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/12/11/elearning-foundation-launches-corporate-partnership-scheme/
- Published: 2008-12-11T11:49:31+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

National Charity Calls On Companies To Help Erase Digital Divide

December 11 2008: The e-Learning Foundation, the only national charity dedicated
to ensuring that every child in the UK has access to technology for their studies,
has set up a Corporate Partnership Scheme to help ensure that disadvantaged children
don’t end up the wrong side of the digital divide.

Companies joining the scheme will be required to make a minimum £10,000 donation
per annum over a two year period to help the most disadvantaged children in the 
UK get a better start in life by providing them with home access to technology for
their studies.

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“The digital divide in the UK is a social problem, but also a key business problem,”
explained Valerie Thompson, Chief Executive of the e-Learning Foundation. “The future
of UK business will be on a digital platform and digital exclusion has a major impact
on the skills pool and employability. By supporting our scheme, companies are investing
in a strong IT literate workforce for the 21st century”.

“We must work together to erase the digital divide in this country to ensure that
technology is utilised for universal social and economic

empowerment, as opposed to creating an even greater chasm of exclusion,” added Thompson.

“There is undoubtedly a direct link between companies building up CSR programmes
and heightening their corporate reputation and increasing employee motivation,” 
added Neil White, Fundraising Director, e-Learning Foundation. “Through our scheme,
companies can share our mission to bring social justice to millions of young people
in both rural and urban areas who, through no fault of their own, are caught in 
the digital divide. At the same time they can actually see the way their help will
change young lives forever, creating career opportunities they could only have

previously dreamt of”.

The e-Learning Foundation already works with a number of large corporations on projects
including DSGi, Virgin Media, The Mercers’ Company, Lloyds’ Charities Trust and 
The Vodafone UK Foundation.

**Editor’s notes:**

• 1.4 million school age children in the UK live in homes without a computer

• 2.8 million children lack home access to the Internet

• 37% of those without a computer come from single parent households

For further information, please contact

e-Learning Foundation ­ Jan Howells. PR.

Tel: +44 (0) 1932 796036 email: Ja*@******************on.com

E-learning Foundation:

The e-Learning Foundation was launched in 2001, to ensure that every schoolchild
in the UK should have home access to learning technologies when and where they want
to learn.

The Foundation, a registered charity, aims to bridge the digital divide and ensure
that all children, irrespective of their background, can have the same access to
technology for learning at home as their better off peers.

The Foundation is funded through the public, private and third sector in the form
of Government grants, commercial sponsorship, grants and donations.

So far, the e-Learning Foundation has provided 65,000 primary and secondary school
children with learning technologies to use at home and at school. The Foundation
provides free advisory and support services to schools and financial help by way
of grants, to help the most disadvantaged families with access to learning technologies.
It also campaigns at national level to keep the digital divide at the forefront 
of public consciousness.

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