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Oldham's employment support team has landed £266,084 to help residents who struggle to get online, after winning a national award for the way it already guides people into work. The money, drawn from the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund, will pay for a new programme called GOW Digital that aims to close the borough's stubborn gap between those who can use the internet and those who cannot.

The same service, Get Oldham Working, collected the Tailored Employment Support Award at December's ERSA Employability Awards 2025, beating projects from across the country. Judges singled out the way staff shape help around each client, a method council leader Arooj Shah saw first-hand when she spent a morning with advisers in June.

Recent months have shown how that personal approach works. In April, a free eight-week course steered a group of residents straight into NHS jobs, with one new care worker saying she had 'wanted to work for the NHS for a long time' and was now pleased to be 'helping someone in need of care'.

Young people have also been targeted. More than 300 teenagers and college students filed through last September's Oldham Careers Fair at Queen Elizabeth Hall, meeting employers lined up from 3 pm to 6 pm on the day.

With the fresh funding now agreed, coaches will begin signing up residents who lack devices, data or confidence, hoping to repeat the success already seen in health care and other sectors.