The web can be an amazing tool for learning but only for those who know where to look.

“16 million people in the UK lack basic digital skills.” – Martha Lane Fox

People presume that a young person who knows how to switch on a computer and log in into Facebook is competent online but there is a huge difference between physical access and cognitive access on the Internet.

The cognitive ability to curate the web is becoming an invaluable tool for young people who are looking for work as well as trying to start their own businesses.

It always surprises me how many young people ask me how to get in to filmmaking without realising they can learn most of what I do just by watching videos on Youtube.

As the notion “job for life” falls away, it’s vital that young people take the initiative to learn quickly and freely on their own terms in order to find new and innovative ways to survive in the digital economy.

I think it’s time we stopped focusing on mindless technologies that detain young people’s attention and instead find new ways to liberate, up-skill and promote what the Internet was really made to do.

“The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” —William Gibson

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg2-ASD3Nj0]