A Case Study of Social and Corporate Responsibility in Bridging the Digital Divide

Being on the wrong side of the digital divide limits the life chances of the socially excluded, who have had neither the wherewithal nor the opportunity to obtain highly paid, skilled positions in IT. Irish policy makers see education as the solution to this problem. However, providing institutional support for third level education in IT for the socially disadvantaged poses significant challenges. This paper describes these problems and explains how they were overcome in implementing an undergraduate university course. This diploma course has been an unqualified success has achieved its objectives and those of the policy makers who instituted it. However, what made it so was the commitment of concerned stakeholders, from members of the executive steering committee who developed and implemented the course, to the lecturers who delivered it, and the students who participated in it.