Pensioners were never expected to be at the forefront of the new technology boom, but try telling that to Rosa Thomas. Not content with learning how to operate the internet and send emails abroad, the retired shorthand-typist has her eyes fixed on a computer-aided design course where she can make gifts such as flowery scarves for all her family.
Rosa, who admits to being well above retirement age, is a regular at Age Concern's IT training workshop in Slough. She is the kind of feisty fun-loving person who would want to try anything new but she's not alone in her internet interest. The charity's workshops for older people have proved a big success. In less than two years they have trained 500 in Slough alone, and thousands more across the country.
Now there are plans for four permanent IT training centres in Slough, due to open in September, which could herald a national network. Slough, where Age Concern piloted its courses, will also have a new mobile unit to tour pensioners' lunch clubs. The over-50s are the fastest-growing group of computer users and 2.2m regularly surf the net.
This new wave of silver surfers are not just passive net browsers either. A new survey by Microsoft and Age Concern shows they are slowly losing their suspicion of online banking and shopping. Andy Allsopp, media manager of Age Concern, says: "The growth in internet-ordered, home delivered groceries could prove a lifeline for more frail pensioners. And the internet as a whole can help people feel less isolated.
"There is a role for IT in improving quality of life. The people we see on our courses are bright and intelligent and keen to keep on learning."
At the Age Concern workshop in Slough on a Saturday morning, Rosa Thomas's husband Peter is checking his share prices. The retired Heathrow engineer said computers were just being introduced at work when he retired so he never really learned to use them.
"We wanted to buy one at home but started coming here last autumn to find out how to use them first," he says. Rosa's eyes twinkle and she giggles at the idea that anyone could find computers stressful. They've opened up a whole new world for her and Peter, offering a chance to indulge their love of travel by planning holidays online, check shares or even play a game of fantasy casino. "I know some people are sick of computers at work but I love them," she says.
"We never had any when I was working but we've learned how to use the internet in a few months and now we look for holidays online. I'm an Old Age Traveller. "We use them mostly to keep in touch with our daughter Karen who's in Paris and we have grandchildren at university and my son is up north and my sister lives in Naples, and all these people have email. We come here to check our mail. "It's a social thing too," she adds. "We came on the course to meet other people and have a chat."
Next to Rosa that morning, Eton college waitress Ada Stec, 65, was struggling to learn the basics of creating files and sending emails. It was her second visit and she said, slightly bashfully, she was finding it hard going but was determined to persevere. "I haven't told my family I'm coming here. I want to learn something first and then surprise them," she says. "My granddaughter Lydia is only three but she plays games on computer and I want to be able to play with her."
Meanwhile Violet Wright was tackling spreadsheets, picking up tips to use for her job at a care home for the elderly. Violet, has a computer at home which her son gave her and likes the fact that she can learn at her own pace at the workshop. "I hadn't used a computer before I started coming here in September," she says.
"But I like keeping up with the modern world and doing things youngsters can do instead of being pushed aside to the rubbish tip. "When I come home my grandchildren say: 'You haven't been learning computers have you? What can you do?' Then they realise I'm not senile after all. I've never been near a typewriter before but now I'm proud I can master something new.
"I love the internet. It's like a dictionary and you can see what's in the shops. Before I didn't like computers, I thought they made you lazy, but now I can see you still use your brain. Now I think it's brilliant."
Age Resource (the younger arm of Age Concern) runs courses across the country, offering small scale workshops with a handful of donated computers, usually in classes run two or three days a week. Community involvement officer Naomi Ridley says it's hard to keep up with demand. They have had to retrain their volunteer tutors and now also run trouble-shooting workshops for those with their own computers. Art workshops, started in March, have proved an instant hit.
People can design things on computer and print onto textiles. "Once people get over their fear of computers they tend to want to learn more," says Ridley. "We have one woman who always wanted to be a fashion designer but never got the chance. Now she is doing our arts course and loving it."
• For IT training course details, contact Age Concern on 020 8765 7200
