Overview
At 100 years old Captain Sir Tom Moore raised £££ millions for charity. He reminded us of humanity at its best by showing kindness, empathy, compassion, tolerance, respect, integrity and courage.
Our humanity gives us the personal qualities that underpin the soft skills that employers are looking for in their workforce, shine ‘enlightenment’ into British democracy, and explain the humanity and corporate social responsibility behind ‘Tech4Good’.
How to inspire young people to prosper and succeed, manage online behaviour, bridge the skills gap, control risk, and future proof the workforce all feature in an exciting new Pennine Kids STEAM and cybersecurity project to be announced in Autumn 2021.
Marking Captain Sir Tom Moore’s 101st Birthday
Today Pennine Kids marks what would have been Captain Sir Tom Moore’s 101st birthday.
We salute and pay tribute to the kindness, courage, and hope Captain Sir Tom gave to a thankful nation as he raised over £30 million for NHS charities during the darkest days of the UK’s COVID crisis. A war hero and role model, Captain Sir Tom gave us strength and determination to overcome our fears and have faith in each other. His humanity have already inspired people young and old everywhere to come together with empathy and compassion to build a better future.
Sadly, following his death on February 2 2021, Captain Sir Tom’s family revealed that he had received a tirade of personal abuse on social media. People often say and do things on social media without thinking about the consequences either for themselves or others. Some may be frustrated, angry, and depressed, their actions completely out of character and later they come to regret. Others deliberately intend to cause harm or upset. Problem is, once something is said online, it is irreversible and the damage is done. With many people now publishing details of where they work in their social profiles, employers may not be best pleased if their customers are offended or reputation damaged by their employee’s behaviour. Even the self-employed have lost valuable income by members of the family getting themselves involved in online arguments.
It is not the role of Pennine Kids to judge others, merely to encourage everyone to take back control of an angry and divided world. Today, football clubs fall silent on social media to protest against racism and racial abuse. Pennine Kids stands in solidarity with them, rejecting all forms of negativity, bullying, trolling, harassment, political correctness, and discrimination, online and offline. It takes integrity and courage to stand tall above the noise, call out and challenge online behaviour. We need more grassroots role models, mentors, ambassadors and champions to raise standards, build awareness and change online negativity into positive action.
Pennine Kids defends and champions #Tech4Good (‘Tech for Good’). People working in the tech sector and sectors highly dependent on the use of technologies are already familiar with this principle through Corporate Social Responsibility. How we inspire prosperity and success in young people, manage online behaviour, bridge the skills gap, manage business risks, and future proof the workforce all feature in an exciting new Pennine Kids ‘tech4good’ STEAM and cybersecurity project to be announced in Autumn 2021. The project will focus on young people from challenging and deprived backgrounds.
Inspiring Tech For Good
‘Tech for Good’ is a community of people, projects, businesses, organisations and funders that promotes the role of technology to improve social, environmental, economic and political outcomes. ‘Tech for Good’ reflects humanity’s age-old quest for truth and knowledge to unlock the secrets of the universe and understand the human condition. This is achieved through enlightenment and sharing of ideas across philosophy, invention, innovation, exploration, and discovery. Tech for Good values personal integrity, individual creativity, freedom of expression, equality, diversity, standards, collaboration, teamwork and democracy.
Cyber Security and Rules around Human Behaviour
‘Tech for Good’ recognises that human behaviour is a strength, weakness, opportunity and threat to enlightenment and our evolution as an intelligent species. Online, it’s easy to become a ‘keyboard warrior’, ‘armchair commentator’, and hide real identity behind the computer screen. Yet, what others post and share online says more about their integrity, knowledge and mental wellbeing than ours. Making mistakes is easy. The cyber world is not the Wild West that some people imagine it to be, instead governed by laws, regulations, standards and best practice that employers should be aware of. Many online users also think that they have an unbridled right to Free Speech and can say and do as they please. But, this is not an absolute right, for example the laws of defamation or incitement apply. Nor do people have the right to be listened to, especially if they are disrespectful or rude towards others. ‘Switching off’ is a ‘digital’ skill we often do not make use of enough under the right circumstances.
Cyber security puts rules around human behaviour to protect ourselves, families, friends, communities, employers, national security, economic well-being, democracy, and our way of life when online. As we move into a post COVID world we cannot allow our differences to become divisive. This year’s Safer Internet Day on February 9th reflected on the dangers and challenges of fake news. The ‘digital’ skills needed to understand the different between fact, fiction and opinion published online are really analytical life skills on deciding who we trust. But, knowing where to find reliable information from trusted sources that validates what is posted and shared online allows us to make informed decisions on important matters, for example who to vote for or buy from. We become empowered by technology rather than left behind or drowned by chaos and noise. COVID-19 is the game changer for government, politics, the economy, environment, society and our way of life. A catalyst for valuing people and humanity too as we continue to meet the digital challenges, disruptions and transformations that drive electronic business, information society and the knowledge economy.
It is time to put ethics, values and etiquette into our use of digital technologies. To do things smarter, better. From employers reviewing and strengthening staff policies and procedures to Parliament and local council chambers taking back control of balanced discussion and debate from reckless, unmoderated social media debate that incites ‘mob rule’. Parliament is the guardian of British democracy and defender of the freedoms, rights, privileges, laws and values that 70 million UK citizens all share in common. Parliament is neither the mouthpiece of political ideologies nor personal egos, and loses authority and trust when becomes so.
Tech4Good STEAM and Cyber Security Project
The negative impacts of Brexit, COVID-19 and social media are well documented. For young people the challenges are huge as a ‘one-size-fits-all approach’ to youth jobs and careers doesn’t work and never will. Pennine Kids helps young people prosper and succeed in a competitive world at their own pace by encouraging opportunity, strength, resilience, continuity and certainty. Drawing inspiration from the Pennine Hills that fed, clothed and sheltered people down the ages. These hills – the backbone of England – allowed communities to flourish down river valleys and helped towns and cities like Huddersfield, Leeds and Manchester grow through trade.
Are you a business owner or senior executive who is interested in supporting our Tech4Good STEAM and Cyber Security Project? A great opportunity to strengthen your corporate social responsibility working with young people from challenging backgrounds.
Please contact Valda Smits using the form below
Author
Will Roebuck https://www.linkedin.com/in/willroebuck