WOMEN will have a chance to improve their digital skills when a £50,000 programme gets under way in Dorset this autumn.

The second Dorset Business Women Go Digital programme will help women start and grow businesses with skills in digital technology.

The first such programme, which finished in March, helped 120 businesses led by women.

The Government Equalities Office has offered a further grant to Superfast Dorset – the partnership between BT, the Department of Media, Culture and Sport and Dorset’s local councils.

The money will support the women from the earlier course as well as helping another wave to develop their digital knowhow.

Cllr Colin Jamieson, cabinet member for economy at Dorset County Council, said: “Women face particular challenges in the workplace, often having to juggle caring responsibilities which mean they need to work flexibly and having a gap in their careers, which means they can fall behind as technology advances.

“There could be an extra one million female entrepreneurs if women started businesses at the same rate as men. We want to help Dorset business women go digital, which will help them start and build businesses here.”

Nicci Campbell, who runs the Angel Cake Company in Dorchester, benefited from the first programme.

She said; “I was a complete Luddite; I had no idea how to use digital technology until I went to the project launch conference in the autumn. Over the next few months I went to sessions on using Facebook, blogging and understanding Google Analytics.

“It has made a tremendous difference to our business, helping it grow by 60 per cent. We are now looking to expand and hope the new programme can help us reach the next level.”

The new programme will help women support each other through networking while ‘digital heroines’ like Nicci will inspire others with their stories of how smarter use of digital technology is helping them.

It will be available to all women-led businesses across Dorset, with emphasis on rural areas.

More information will be released through business networks in the autumn. Details are available by following @superfastdorset on Twitter or visiting dorsetforyou.com/superfast