Older Australians have faced some of the greatest challenges to accessing health, welfare and business services online, and maintaining social connection, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet, they are least equipped to deal with the mass shift to life online. Measuring digital skills, literacy, and participation is challenging. There are few standardized approaches. This study draws on and further develops international best practice measurement for understanding the tangible outcomes of digital skills and participation.
Impact / Outcome
The main output of the program is the number of older Australians engaged and supported by the Be Connected program. Older Australians Engaged in the Be Connected Program were 582,597, and those who were Supported (one-on-one) by the Be Connected Program were 132,176. We can safely assume that all those Supported by the program (132,176) were also counted in the Engaged figure (582,597). Thus, we are taking the Engaged figure of 580,000 as a conservative estimate of people who are involved in Be Connected.
Funding sources
Public/Private
Key Metrics
Engage and support older Australians in digital skills
Operating model
Public-private partnershipYear published
01 January 2020 
Swinburne University