The Ministry of Digital Transformation’s Tarodale AccessTT Centre officially opened its doors to the community on Friday. Along with community members and the Tarodale Community Council, acting Minister of Digital Transformation, Brian Manning, and Acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Cory Belfon, celebrated another critical step toward digital inclusion.
A flagship initiative of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the AccessTT Centres provide life-changing digital resources to under-served communities, with the Tarodale Centre being the twenty-second site to be opened. Acting Minister of Digital Transformation, Brian Manning, offered a snapshot of the range of services provided to a wide cross-section of the community.
“Access to high-speed internet for research, education, and business development. Two: training programmes in essential digital skills to empower job seekers, students, and entrepreneurs. For example, “Digital First Steps for Seniors,” “Basic Coding,” “Creating with Canva,” and “Internet Safety” … just to name a few. Three: support for e-Government services, enabling residents to access vital government resources.”
Acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Cory Belfon, explained how the AccessTT Centres promote e-commerce adoption.
“Small and medium-sized enterprise owners and entrepreneurs have used centre facilities to conduct research into scaling their business and how to create new revenue streams, access training and mentorship, register their business online and hold business meetings. And it’s interesting that this also dovetails nicely with the direction of the national e-commerce strategy 2024 to 2030 in creating and maintaining an enabling environment that facilitates and promotes e-commerce adoption.”
A few community members shared their gratitude and hopes for the AccessTT Centre.
“We’d like to thank you all for this opportunity and for this very nice initiative where we involve the children. Where we encourage them to … learn the internet a little bit more. Learn coding and all of these different things. Thank you.
“It’s a very lovely facility and everything is up-to-date and clean. And the staff seems to be very friendly. And I hope this continues and it stays this way, that it could benefit all of us in the community.”
The Tarodale Community Council, and the principals and students of the St. Clement Vedic School and the St. Madeline Government Primary School were part of the special occasion.