UK National Lottery Heritage Fund receives £1m extra funding for digital skills programme

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) of the UK has made available an additional £1 million for the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Digital Skills for Heritage programme.

The initiative aims at raising digital skills and confidence across the country’s heritage sector. The allocation of the additional funds was reported on October 22.

It comes at a time when many different organisations are working hard to adapt to the new realities brought about by the novel Coronavirus.

Since the launch of Digital Skills for Heritage in February, £1.5 million of UKnNational Lottery funding has been provided for online training programmes and workshops and it has reached to more than 700 organisations and 5,500 individuals.

The additional £1 million support from the government – which will increase the programme’s reach – was awarded under the wider £92 million Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage.

Josie Fraser, head of digital policy at National Lottery Heritage Fund, said he was happy that their initiative has received funding from DCMS.

Since the launch of the programme, they have made concrete progress in supporting heritage organisations to increase their digital abilities and confidence, he said.

Fraser added that this progress has been particularly significant during the pandemic as the additional resources helped organisations develop their use of effective digital technology.

“With this additional funding we will be able to expand on our successes, helping heritage organisations increase their resilience, provide new digital services and attract new members and volunteers,” he concluded.