Mohammed started volunteering with Starting Point as a Digital Champion in June 2025 as part of our National Lottery funded volunteering programme.

He brought 25 years of unversity teaching experience from working in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, great digital skills, as well as his skills speaking Arabic.

Mohammed was interested to be part of the community in Stockport, to give something back, but also to improve his English skills. He was frustrated that his confidence in speaking English was holding him back with finding teaching work, something we were happy to help with, especially as Mohammed is a science teacher, and the UK needs more science teachers! He wanted to boost his wellbeing by giving something back and volunteering too.

On his first session, Mohammed said he loved the kind and welcoming atmosphere at this session, and he enjoyed talking to different people – joining in with puzzles and crafts to get to know everyone, as well supporting people with digital tasks.

After a few weeks, Mohammed told us that being a Digital Champion was building his confidence – he said he was surprised and pleased that people could understand him easily. Even more, he was pleased he could understand other people’s accents! He said that before volunteering, he was nervous to speak to older people, as he wasn’t sure if he would understand a different accent. He was delighted to find his English was a lot better than he had thought! He said:

“It made me feel better, people were so happy with my help, it was very wonderful! I helped with things like finding an email and making a phone easier to use… when people get older it’s difficult to understand phones, laptops, if you don’t use it everyday.”

He told us he appreciated the support from Starting Point. Mohammed attended Starting Point’s digital skills for work course, including support to use AI for CV writing, which he said was very useful. He told us:

“Thank you for the training and your continuous wonderful effort to help me. Fortunately I gained a skilled and good volunteer leader at Starting Point”.

In December, Mohammed moved on to full time study, to help him with his goal of getting back to teaching. He says:

Currently I am looking for a job, but when I arrange my time, I will return to the fun and beloved volunteer work again.”

He called the people he met “wonderful heroes” which is probably the best review from a Digital Champion ever! Thanks Mohammed, you would be welcome back any time, and we wish you luck with your job search.