Businesses are being urged to donate any unwanted laptops and devices to the #TechTogether campaign after two Northamptonshire companies came together to try to help parents struggling with home schooling.
Jon Thorpe from ACS, based on the Brackmills Industrial Estate responded quickly to a conversation between Ben Thomas of All Things Business and Matt Coleman, Director of Primary Education at Nene Education Trust, which was published on social media last Friday.
In that interview, Matt advised parents struggling with home schooling to set realistic goals with regard to home schooling, telling them to just do their best and be honest and open with their children’s schools and teachers about any issues.
He added:
“Parents are under so much pressure, especially when they have two or more children needing access to one device, or where they have no device at all. We would ask two things of business leaders – one is to be understanding and supportive towards staff who are having to home school, and also, if they have any devices – laptops, tablets or iPads – that they can donate to a local school to pass on to a family that is struggling, that would be fantastic.”
Over the following weekend, Jon Thorpe contacted All Things Business to say that ACS engineers would offer their time, free of charge to wipe clean any donated device under five or six years old so that it was ready for a child to use, clear of any data from the original owners.
“We just want to help in any way we can,” said Jon Thorpe. “Why wouldn’t we? We’d already been approached by a number of clients asking us to wipe devices for donation to those in need, and this seemed like a natural step on from that. If any businesses have devices they no longer need, our engineers will wipe them clean in line with data protection and then present them ready for a school to hand over to families that need them.”
That offer prompted the launch of the #TechTogether campaign whereby All Things Business will liaise with local businesses to collect devices and pass them on to ACS to try to help as many children as possible.
Ben Thomas said:
“We are calling it #TechTogether because we feel that carries on the message from last year’s lockdowns about the strength of the local business community and the community in general about how we can work together to help each other. Business owners who are parents themselves will know how tough home schooling is. We’re not teachers, we’re just parents doing the best we can and it’s difficult enough even with the right resources. Not everyone has that luxury, and if the business community can pull together to come up with just 20, maybe 30 devices to take the pressure off children and their parents, then that would be amazing.”
If you have a device to donate to the #TechTogether campaign, contact All Things Business on 01604 267677 or email news@allthingsbusiness.co.uk.
