Through place-based partnerships and practical digital support, DWP and Capgemini are helping people build the confidence and improve employment prospects.

Client challenge: DWP wanted to build on existing social value activities in regions with greater employment barriers, engaging local organisations to build digital confidence, employability skills and clearer pathways into work.
 
Solution: Capgemini engaged DWP and local partners to understand their role in building digital skills, then helped them design and deliver targeted inclusion and employability support shaped around local need.

Benefits:

  • More than 3,800 people reached through digital inclusion initiatives between 2023 and 2026 YTD 
  • More than 1,350 people supported in 2026 YTD through targeted skills, employability, mentoring, work experience and inclusion programmes 
  • 23 workshops, programmes and initiatives delivered in 2026 YTD 
  • More than 160 people from DWP priority groups digitally upskilled 

DWP is working with Capgemini to turn social value commitments into practical support for UK citizens facing employment barriers, such as digital exclusion. What began as volunteering-led activity has become a targeted programme, delivered with charity and community partners in regions where DWP sees significant need. By building digital confidence, raising aspirations and strengthening local capability, the partnership is helping people move closer to work and creating support that can continue beyond individual interventions.

Creating opportunities through digital inclusion 

Digital inclusion is closely linked to DWP’s mission to help people find, return to and stay in work. As more public services, job applications and workplace tools move online, people without digital access, skills or confidence can face greater barriers to employment, essential services and financial independence. 

The UK Government’s 2025 Digital Inclusion Action Plan states that people who cannot use digital technologies are five times more likely to be unemployed, have worse health outcomes and pay more for everyday items than people who can go online. For DWP, that makes digital inclusion a social value priority, particularly for groups who may already face barriers to work, including young people, older workers, disabled people, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and prison leavers. 

As part of its work with DWP, Capgemini committed to invest in social value activity with sustainable impact, aligned to the department’s goals. In 2023, delivery was largely focused on volunteering-based commitments, including school outreach, digital upskilling and pro bono activity delivered by Capgemini colleagues. Much of this support centred on school-age young people, helping raise aspirations before they reached the point of being not in education, employment or training (NEET). 

From mid-to-late 2024, the programme began to evolve. Capgemini and DWP looked beyond volunteer numbers and hours to understand who was being reached, what support they needed and how activity could better align with DWP’s priority groups. This shifted the work from broad volunteering to a more targeted social value programme focused on prevention, inclusion and routes into sustainable employment. 

Building confidence, skills and routes into work  

In Greater Manchester, Capgemini supported the Salford Foundation’s Raising Aspirations programme, helping school-age young people explore career pathways and build confidence in the opportunities available to them. This preventative approach remains central: engaging 12- to 16-year-olds before they risk becoming NEET, while also working with older young people who need more direct employability support. 

For young people aged 18 and above, Capgemini has worked with organisations including CodeYourFuture to provide employability skills, vocational training and digital upskilling. While this work was initially designed around NEET young people, delivery has also reached older workers, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and people with disabilities who may not have previously had the opportunity, confidence or support to move into full-time employment, particularly in office-based roles. 

What that support involves has been tailored to different needs. Young people have taken part in STEM outreach, office-based work experience, virtual consulting and project management sessions, financial literacy training and AI prompt engineering activities. For more experienced learners, the focus has included practical online skills, LinkedIn guidance, CV support, interview preparation and help recognising transferable skills. 

The programme also created more targeted routes into employment. Through Business in the Community, Capgemini supported Afghan and Ukrainian refugees with CV reviews and job coaching, while CodeYourFuture trainees have progressed into work placements on Capgemini client projects. Alongside this, inclusion workshops help employers understand how to support people who may have been out of work for a long time or need reasonable adjustments to progress – for example, neurodiversity manager training, autism awareness, and dyslexia awareness workshops. 

This also changed how the programme was delivered. Earlier activity was led mainly by Capgemini volunteers. As the focus moved from inputs to impact, DWP colleagues became more actively involved, joining workshops, work experience activity and inclusion events. That shift made social value a more collaborative story, with Capgemini and DWP contributing together to the communities they serve. 

Scaling social value through place-based partnerships 

The latest evolution of the partnership is Let’s Get Digital Newcastle, a place-based digital inclusion programme delivered with social value partner Digital Unite through a train-the-trainer model. Capgemini and DWP had already seen interest in Newcastle, but traditional volunteering-led delivery was harder to scale because of local resourcing and capacity. Capgemini had also seen Let’s Get Digital work with other clients, in West Cumbria and Durham, making the model a strong fit for DWP’s needs in the North East. 

Rather than relying on one-off workshops, Let’s Get Digital helps local charities and community organisations develop digital champions who can support people with everyday digital skills. It combines local reach, trusted relationships and practical support to build regional capacity, so more people are equipped to help others over time. 

That model reflects Capgemini’s wider approach to social value: practical support that continues after an individual event or intervention has finished. It is targeted enough to respond to DWP’s priority groups, but broad enough to reach others who need help. The focus is on making sure outreach reaches the people DWP most wants to support, without excluding the wider community. 

The Newcastle programme also builds on learning from Capgemini’s broader social value work. By bringing together DWP priorities, Capgemini’s digital inclusion experience and Digital Unite’s specialist expertise, it offers a practical route to stronger local digital capability. It also gives public sector, private sector and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations space to share what works, understand local needs and identify opportunities for collaboration. 

One early sign of that wider value came from the Let’s Get Digital Newcastle launch event – after which, part of DWP connected directly with CodeYourFuture to explore career mentoring for the charity’s beneficiaries. It shows how a place-based event can create new relationships, extend existing partnerships and open up additional routes of support beyond the original programme. 

Creating long-term impact 

By moving beyond volunteer hours, Capgemini’s work with DWP is tracking both reach and outcomes for beneficiaries. That includes improved digital confidence, greater independence with online services, stronger employability skills, work experience, mentoring and more inclusive routes into employment. 

Over two and a half years, the programme has reached thousands of people through digital inclusion initiatives. In 2026 YTD, more than 1,350 people have been supported across 23 workshops, programmes and initiatives, with more than 160 people from DWP priority groups digitally upskilled. 

The programme’s value lies not only in reach, but in how support is becoming more specific, collaborative and sustainable. Capgemini and DWP are now having deeper conversations about co-delivery, supplier involvement and their shared contribution to the social value landscape. That outcome-focused approach is helping shift social value from individual commitments into a longer-term partnership model. 

The next phase will continue in that direction of travel. With activity growing in the North East and North West, and Let’s Get Digital providing a scalable model for place-based digital inclusion, Capgemini will continue applying lessons from its wider social value work to DWP’s priorities. The aim is to build regional capability, strengthen community partnerships and help more people develop the skills and confidence to move closer to work.

“I wanted to share my reflections following attendance at a Digital Inclusion event held at St James’s Park, Newcastle, which was facilitated by Capgemini. 

Capgemini is a strategic supplier to DWP, and I attended in my capacity as the Senior Accountable Executive, responsible for the relationship. The event brought together representatives from the public sector, private sector, charities, and local communities across the North East to discuss approaches to digital inclusion. 

The session provided an opportunity to engage with a range of stakeholders, understand different perspectives on digital accessibility, and explore how organisations are addressing inclusion within digital services. Discussions also highlighted opportunities for collaboration, particularly in relation to how support could be aligned with the needs of charities and local communities. 

The event offered a useful forum to share and for me to reflect on the department’s ongoing work in supporting digital inclusion, while also gaining insight into broader activity across the region.” 

Cheryl Hudson MBE , Senior Accountable Executive , Department for Work and Pensions