"Basic IT skills" is a rather broad subject. I'm a recient graduate with a BS in IT, and within our program there were 4 very different concentrations. What they were is irrelevent, the point is that basic IT skills could be 100 different things to 100 different people.
The important thing however is hands on training, alot of concepts in IT are difficult to comprehend at first if you don't see what the result is. This is due to the fact that everything has so much background as to why X does Y. The fact alone that they have an idea of what they want to learn helps greatly.
The best thing you can do for somebody who is serious about learning (but not so serious as to pursue some sort of degree in it) is teaching them to be curious, and learn where to hunt for answers. They might start wanting to learn about SEO, but that could always lead them off into understanding how spiders work, which could lead them into... etc. etc.
That being said, at the very least, if they're interest lies in the world wide web, get them a solid foundation of basic html, anything past that (at first) is likely to scare them off. After that, be responsive and answer questions (though not always completly, give them things to figure out on their own).
Just don't forget what it was like for you to start learning IT, there's alot going on all at once and to a layperson it is scary. Patience is the key.