Student@Home, a new social business employing IT students to provide technology support and training to home computer users and small businesses, has recently launched in West London.

Founded by Chiswick resident Kelly Klein, Student@Home takes two problems and makes them into solutions – it offers students struggling for work experience an opportunity to gain employment, and it provides local residents and small businesses struggling with technology a cost efficient, simple and friendly support service.

The Student@Home service will initially cover the West London area, however it will roll out across London in the late summer. Miss Klein has been working with local universities to recruit and at the time of launch employs over 30 students. She has ambitious plans to create hundreds of jobs for students by the end of 2012.

While the Student@Home workers will be able to deal with technical IT problems, they will also be trained to support people with little-to-no knowledge of computers. One in four adults in the UK have never used the internet, and over 39 per cent of people in the UK without access are over 65.

Miss Klein commented, “I hope our service will help to tackle the digital divide. Technology can be intimidating to a lot of people, and Student@Home solves this problem by offering friendly one-to-one training to people in the security of their own home,” said Miss Klein.

The Student@Home model is based on an established business in the Netherlands, Studentaanhuis.nl, which now employs over 260 students across the country.

The business has a strong social mission at its core – it aims to provide employment opportunities for students and improve access to technology for the digitally excluded in the UK. Once the core business is established Miss Klein hopes to open a training centre to help disadvantaged people gain basic IT qualifications.

For more information about Student@Home visit www.studentathome.co.uk, email info@studentathome.co.uk or phone 0203 056 6864.

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August 3, 2012