1st Cheque from National Lottery!

Background to the group

Warsop Infotech Group was founded in 1994 by a small group of people who were taking part in a short course run by the WEA at Warsop Town Hall. The group had a common interest in progressing their training further and they sought to bring follow-on courses into the Town Hall. They were successful in a bid to get Nottingham University to run a distance learning pilot project in word processing. The University loaned three computers and a printer to the group, who worked on a rota system to carry out their training.

This success spurred the group on to meet regularly to plan future courses and they formally constituted in 1995. As more people joined the group it demonstrated the need for locally based training facilities in Warsop, so campaigning for equipment and identifying suitable training schemes has been an important part of the group's activities.

From this small start, resources were gradually built up with help and grants from locally based organisations (Notts County Council, Warsop Parish Council, North Notts TEC and the Rural Community Council). West Notts College and the W.E.A have provided a wide range of courses. All the organisations have been very supportive of training initiatives at Warsop Town Hall, providing the local community with access to a wide range of computing qualifications.

In 1997 the group received a tremendous boost by being awarded a grant from the National Lottery Charities Board. This enabled the training room at the Town Hall to be equipped with modern equipment running the latest software and a resource centre of training materials available to members.

In the year 2000 the group was successful in gaining a grant of more than £84,000 awarded as part of the government's "UK Online" initiative. Therefore we are now known as a "UK Online Centre" with access to the internet and online learning available to the community. This funding also enabled us to appoint a Learner Support and Resource Worker who supported members at drop-in sessions and enrolled and supported students who signed up for Learn Direct courses. This funding finished in May 2004.

In April 2004 the group was successful in gaining a grant from the local Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and completely updated the IT suite with new computers and TFT monitors. Further equipment was purchased at this time to allow us to move into digital video editing. Disability access has been improved with a range of equipment and software. A new Thursday evening drop-in session was also started.

The group continued to develop and by 2006 had 32 networked computers spread across three training areas, several laptops, digital stills and video cameras and was becoming known for its film production work, digital video training courses and extensive Family History resources and training. We started an additional Monday evening drop-in session. A single non-IT Spanish course was started by one of our members.

November 2008 - with assistance of funding from local organisations the second IT suite was equiped with 8 large keyboard brand new laptop computers and can be used for non-IT course

We continue to look for new funding opportunities and new ideas for training to provide in our suite. Our main aim is to finance the employment of a full-time Project Manager so we can meet the growing demand for our services.

As the group has developed there have been big changes but we do hope to keep the friendly and helpful spirit of the Infotech drop-in sessions where members are always willing to share their knowledge and help each other