Our engineers here at Pro Drive have been very busy using their technical skills in their spare time, refurbishing second hand laptops which have been distributed mainly via charities.
Our whole team collected laptops that were around 4 – 5 years old or less from some of our lovely clients – as well as colleagues – who didn’t need them anymore. Pro Drive provided spare parts – we’ve got through many SDDs, RAM and chargers! This enabled us to upgrade the specs and turn machines headed for scrap into fully working laptops.
The laptops were distributed to individuals and groups via wonderful charities like Oakleaf Enterprise, B@titude and Trekkers.
We have been told that the computers have made all the difference, especially during the coronavirus pandemic where children and teens haven’t been able to get into school so needed them at home to study. Feedback from the charities and sometimes the recipients themselves has been lovely to receive.
So thank you to all the people who have donated their laptops so far and to the charities who have distributed them. It is great to know that computers that would otherwise be languishing somewhere in a cupboard and forgotten about – or thrown away – have now got a new lease of life, helping people live their lives a bit easier!
Technical skills
Here at Pro Drive IT we also offer work experience to help people learn technical skills. Before the pandemic, we welcomed a student via an organization called Spark!, a non-profit organisation which works with education and business to prepare young people for working life. We have also provided work experience places to young adults with special needs too.
Remember cybersecurity when online
Just to remind everyone, it’s more important than ever to be cybersecurity aware and protect your devices and accounts when you’re online. Think about putting these things into practice if you haven’t already:
- Have you restarted your computer in the last 7 days? If not, get into the habit of restarting it on a regular basis as important updates to your computer are often only installed when your machine is restarted.
- Don’t reuse the same or similar passwords across multiple websites and applications.
- Use a password manager like Last Pass to protect your passwords.
- Only download applications from Google Play™ or the App Store®.
- Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to log in to any website or application you use, especially for financial or sensitive data.
- Don’t click on links or open attachments in unsolicited emails or text messages without being sure they are genuine.
Our cybersecurity checklist provides more essential tips for staying safe – take a look here.
