Dear Daily Express readers,
I was 24 years old when I became the first footballer to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final - helping to secure England the Jules Rimet trophy.
I’m 82 now so that seems like a long time ago. I joke that 1966 was medieval times. But I still feel like a spring chicken because I can do more today than I could 10, 20, or 30 years ago… thanks to technology.
It’s understandable why so many people of my generation feel left behind by technology.
Yet it was our era that at witnessed the pioneering of tech as we know it.
The 1960s brought the first ever internet connection, the first personal computers and games consoles. We sent a man to the moon.
We took the small steps so our children and grandchildren could ld take the giant leaps. And boy is it leaping - from smartphones, tablets and d voice assistants, to weird and wonderful apps, social media and artificial intelligence. There’s a lot to take in.
But it’s never too late to learn. I’m here to testify that.
And the basics is all I need. I don’t want to be on TikTok and I don’t need to use ChatGPT, whatever that is. I do need to be able to check my bank account, book my train tickets and see pictures of my grandchildren.
So much of what we do now in our daily lives relies on technology.
It’s therefore important we all have digital skills to make the most of life in the modern age. Learning a new skill can be daunting. You might be afraid to ask for help from friends or family, fearful of doing something wrong - hitting the wrong button. I’ve been there myself.
As I found out during my football career, no individual is greater than the team, which is why I’m encouraging people to get together with their friends and other members of the community and sign up to BT Group’s free Digital Skills courses.
This helps get rid of the fear, as you’re all in the same boat and learning together with your peers. BT Group has partnered with AbilityNet, a charity which encourages everyone to get to grips with technology and put a stop to digital exclusion in the UK, to give people just like us a chance to learn more about the online world. You can sign up to receive free digital skills training as an individual or (even better) as part of a group by following the link http://www.abilitynet.org. uk/GeoffHurstDigitalSkills. They cover everything we need to know from how to log on to your wifi to common scams to be aware of. If there’s something specific you find tricky then they will tailor a session to help you.
I recommend it to anyone who feels like they’re getting left behind or finds themselves getting frustrated by technology from booking hospital appointments to knowing how to skip the football pundits!