Josephine's journey to digital literacy

Joséphine: “A big thank you to Konexio. We gained a lot of skills with these courses: Konexio has nice trainers. We also all got to know one another through our shared common interest on the discovery of computer tools”.

Joséphine was a technician in an analysis laboratory in the Ivory Coast located in West Africa. When she arrived in France on January 2020 she had never touched a computer in her life. Seeing her former coworkers using a computer on a daily basis made her feel that computers were not for her and that she would never be able to master this ‘computer language’.

Athough she knows how to use her phone perfectly, her lack of computer skills quickly become a handicap and forced her to “run after people” to ask for help. It's hard to depend on others when you've always been independent.

She was staying in an accommodation center in France (while her papers were being approved) that directed her to Konexio. Motivated to learn a computer, she joined the DigitAll program to develop digital literacy.

​This program is divided into three training levels of 20 hours each:

The three training levels are beginner, intermediate and advanced. Never having used a computer before, Joséphine entered the beginner level. Far from being discouraged by being a complete beginner, she then participated in all 60 hours that made up the program, iterating herself through each of the levels. Thanks to this she learned the basics of computer use, and now will progress to more advanced skills; spreadsheets, for example. This complete pathway is not the only strength of the program. Classes are also an opportunity to meet people and open up to others. The small group of learners is still in touch and Joséphine has gained a very good friend: Brigitte, whose profile we will share soon."

At first I was scared" she tells us, but the two trainers, Jennifer and Fabienne, were able to put her at ease. "We forgot that we were in class, we are more confident, we don't hesitate to ask questions. And sometimes it also happens that we help other people who are in class”. Joséphine even thinks that she will one day be able to become a volunteer for Konexio to give lessons to other people.

Nevertheless, Joséphine tells us that the lessons are not always enough to acquire perfect control, you also have to train. But practicing when you don't have a computer is complicated. Even now, she lacks a personal computer.

Today Joséphine has gained autonomy. “I can send an email, listen to music, do calculations, I learned everything”. She is now planning for the future, as her mastery of the computer opened up a wide choice of professions to her. Beyond the professional aspect, computer skills also enable her to pursue leisure activities and to accomplish administrative tasks alone.  As Joséphine sums it up so well: “The computer tool is your whole life”.