By Essential Digital Talent

The Essentials initiative, promoted by Fundación ONCE, is positioned as a good practice aimed at ensuring equitable access to basic digital skills for people with disabilities. Through face-to-face, practical and personalized training, the program contributes to reducing the digital divide, fostering personal autonomy and improving the employability of a group that has historically encountered greater barriers to accessing the digital environment.

Objective and scope: Accessible digital training for inclusion

The program aims to train people with disabilities in basic digital skills that allow them to operate more autonomously in society and improve their opportunities for access to employment.

The initiative offers an itinerary composed of 12 workshops, each with 8 hours of face-to-face training and 4 hours of personalized tutoring, taught in two days. With more than 2,000 courses scheduled in all the autonomous communities, the program guarantees a wide territorial coverage and facilitates access to training regardless of the place of residence.

Strategic focus: Bridging the digital divide for people with disabilities

The programme focuses on removing barriers to access to technology through accessible, personalised training tailored to the needs of each participant.

The training content includes:

• Basic use of mobile devices.
• Management of the Windows environment.
• Navigation and digital tools.
• Digital security.
• Digital identity.
• Intellectual property.
• Artificial Intelligence.
• Digital skills for everyday life and employment.

The objective is to provide participants with the necessary skills to use technology safely and autonomously, encouraging their active participation in the digital society.

Qualitative impact: Autonomy, inclusion and improved employability

The impact of the programme goes beyond the acquisition of technological knowledge. The combination of face-to-face training and individualized tutoring allows the learning to be adapted to the specific needs of each participant, favoring an inclusive and effective training experience.

In addition to strengthening digital autonomy, the initiative improves confidence in the use of technologies, facilitates day-to-day management and contributes to increasing the possibilities of labour insertion through the development of digital skills increasingly demanded by companies.

The programme also strengthens equal opportunities by bringing digital transformation closer to people who have traditionally had more limited access to this type of training.

Key components: Personalized training and national coverage

Differential elements of the program include:

• 12 specialised courses in basic digital skills.
• Practical face-to-face training.
• Individualized tutorials adapted to each participant.
• Accessible and inclusive methodology.
• Updated content on emerging technologies and Artificial Intelligence.
• National coverage with more than 2,000 courses scheduled.
• Development of competences oriented to autonomy and employability.

This approach facilitates learning adapted to different profiles and levels of knowledge, favouring the effective acquisition of digital skills.

Results and achievements: Wide territorial scope and social impact

The results achieved reflect the capacity of the program to extend digital training to people with disabilities throughout the national territory:

• More than 4,500 people trained in basic digital skills.
• More than 10,000 participants expected before the end of the year.
• Target 16,667 people trained by 30 June 2026.
• Presence in 95% of the Autonomous Communities.
• More than 2,000 courses programmed throughout the national territory.

These results demonstrate the programme’s ability to make a sustained contribution to digital inclusion and to improving the employability of persons with disabilities.

Replicability and scalability: A model adaptable to multiple areas

The Essentials program has a high potential for replicability thanks to its modular structure, accessible methodology and adaptability to different contexts.

Its model can be implemented in areas such as vocational training, formal education, public employment or continuous training programmes in companies and institutions, thus expanding access to digital skills for other groups at risk of exclusion.

The combination of hands-on training, personalised mentoring and up-to-date content makes this initiative an easily transferable model to drive digital inclusion.

Popularity and scope: Multichannel dissemination strategy

The dissemination of the program is based on a communication strategy developed together with a specialized marketing agency, responsible for the production of 13 micro informative pills in Spanish and Catalan, as well as the design of creatives and digital advertising campaigns.

The strategy combines online and offline media actions, including social media campaigns, corporate blog content, publications in Profiles magazine, radio wedges and email submissions to the Foundation's databases.

In addition, continuous promotion actions are carried out through calls to collaborating entities distributed throughout the territory, reinforcing the dissemination and facilitating the recruitment of participants.

Why is it good practice?

The Essentials program stands out as good practice because:

• It bridges the digital divide between people with disabilities.
• Ensures accessible and personalised access to basic digital skills.
• It combines face-to-face training with individualized tutoring.
• Improves personal autonomy and social inclusion.
• Increases employability opportunities through demanded digital skills.
• It has demonstrated a high implementation capacity at national level.
• It is a replicable model for other areas of training and digital inclusion.