Supporting a TechMate Tea Party
Our TechMate Tea Parties are a great way to support your learner. You can support us by helping out at an existing TechMate Tea Party or you could even set up your own with our support.
We will discuss options at your induction call.
Support guidelines
When you support us at a TechMate Tea Party or when supporting your learner over the telephone or via video call, it is essential that you abide by the following guidelines:
- Introduce yourself - Your name, I’m a TechMate volunteer for Wigan Council
- Respect the learner's privacy, never ask for or view their personal information when supporting them with digital transactions
- When supporting one-to-one, agree a session length and set realistic expectations
- Present yourself in a professional and appropriate way
- Identify barriers and address them to build learner confidence. For example, checking accessibility settings on a tablet device, changing font size and colour
- Avoid using jargon, technical words and acronyms (letters used instead of the full word)
- Don’t swear or speak about inappropriate topics
- Use descriptive visual language to guide your learners. For example, 'can you find the cross in the top right-hand corner of the screen?'
- Be patient and polite, remain calm, approachable and receptive
- Listen carefully to the learner and ask questions to further understand learner needs and interests
- Take things at a steady pace
- Treat mistakes as learning points.
Spend a few minutes at the end of each session to:
- Summarise what’s been covered in the session and ask your learner how they feel about it. Always celebrate learning successes
- Talk to your learner about how they plan to put their learning into practice
- Enthuse them about the other fun ways that being online could enrich their life, such as pursuing hobbies, staying in touch with family and friends
- Book in your next session!
Worried about your first session? Ask your TechMate Co-ordinator for help.
Move on to the next section: Safety and privacy