Brian Dilworth left school 65 years ago in 1952. Now he's back studying aged 80. He'd rather be working if he could, but it didn't work out that way.

'If people say you are too old, tell them to go to hell.” So he's doing a refresher course instead.

Just over the pod is Evelyn Whyte. She's staring at 77. She's back at school too.

'I was becoming increasingly unpopular by yelling ‘help!' all the time and my son telling me I'd buggered it up again (buggered up the laptop he'd give her).

'He said I did strange things with computers and I had to say, yes I do.” So Evelyn's back in the classroom finessing her skills.

They're both students at Toi Ohomai's 12-week, free, fundamental computing course called Digital Citizen. It wouldn't be wrong or unflattering to call it digital senior citizens. As the institute blurb says, the course is for life-long learners looking for a new challenge.

And Brian and Evelyn, both graduates of the university of life, are up for the challenge.

'I did a course here 10 years ago,” says Brian, the perennial student who was 70 at the time. 'It was ICDL or international computer driving licence. But because of my age I was unable to get a job – miserable sods!” So a decade later he thought he'd sharpen his skills with a refresher course.

Evelyn is fascinated, although by her own admission a bit muddled, by computers – but certainly not intimidated.

'I use it for social media all the time – lots of Facebook, my sister in Holland, Skype, FaceTime, research, emails.” She is also working on a website for her sewing club. 'But I don't want it to grow too big.”

'There's a bunch of people out there who have missed the cloud computing boat” says tutor Lee Harrison.

And there's no one particular demographic – people on sickness and unemployment benefits through to people who are self-employed. 'And we are putting that right.” Very right – because everyone has passed the course and there's still three weeks to run. They're hungry for knowledge.

'They're sticking it out to the end because they want to learn about websites and creating animated movies.”

That's cool he says. 'And one of my proudest moments is when a senior classmate comes in and says I am ahead of the learning curve of my grandchildren and children now because of what I have learned on this course. That's very, very cool.”

But there is work to be done it would seem. Brian lives in a retirement village with 35 residents aged between 65 and 94. 'Only five out of the 35 are computer literate, so the oldies have a lot of catching up to do.”

They could start their education at Toi Ohomai's next Digital Citizen course starting on August 14. Registrations are open now and information is available online, by calling 0800 86 46 46 or email info@toiohomai.ac.nz

There are even some of this intake who are continuing on to complete the full seven-unit certificate course. 'That's great,” laughs Brian, 'but I won't live that long.”