Closing the Digital Skill Divide: The Payoff for Virginia Workers, Business, and the Economy

This page contains the archived presentation and important links from the February 2023 webinar on Closing the Digital Skills Divide in Virginia presented by the National Skills Coalition.

The webinar presentation materials

View the archived presentation here.  To access the video, use passcode: +sB+f0Td

Access the presentation pdf here:  Digital Skill Divide report Virginia presentation – Feb 2023

Important Links from the Webinar

Explore these links shared during the February 23, 2023, webinar on Closing the Digital Skill Divide: The Payoff for Virginia Workers, Business, and the Economy, offered by the National Skills Coalition, and hosted by the Virginia Departments of Education and Aging and Rehabilitative Services with the Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center.

Closing the Digital Skill Divide: https://nationalskillscoalition.org/resource/publications/closing-the-digital-skill-divide/

• National Skills Coalition (NSC) in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta released Closing the Digital Skill Divide, a real-time snapshot of demand for digital skills in the US labor market. The analysis finds that 92% of jobs analyzed require digital skills. Previous NSC research found one-third of workers don’t have the foundational digital skills necessary to enter and thrive in today’s jobs. Together, these findings point to a significant digital skill divide. This report also found that public investments in closing this digital skill divide can generate measurable economic payoff for businesses, workers, and the broader economy. 

NSC Digital Equity Act and BEAD recommendations: https://nationalskillscoalition.org/resource/publications/expanding-digital-inclusion-via-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-law/ 

• National Skills Coalition (NSC) in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta released Closing the Digital Skill Divide, a real-time snapshot of demand for digital skills in the US labor market. The analysis finds that 92% of jobs analyzed require digital skills. Previous NSC research found one-third of workers don’t have the foundational digital skills necessary to enter and thrive in today’s jobs. Together, these findings point to a significant digital skill divide. This report also found that public investments in closing this digital skill divide can generate measurable economic payoff for businesses, workers, and the broader economy. 

National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA):  digitalinclusion.org

• National Digital Inclusion Alliance advances digital equity by supporting community programs and equipping policymakers to act. Their four pillars of work are practitioner support, policy, awareness, and data and research.

Implementing the New Digital Equity Act: https://nationalskillscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/4.26-NSC-digital-equity-act-factsheet_v3.pdf

• What States and Local Skills Advocates Need to Know: The bipartisan infrastructure law passed by Congress in 2021 included major new investments for states via the Digital Equity Act. Now, as implementation of this powerful $2.75 billion legislation gets underway, state and local leaders should take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity. By preparing now, advocates can ensure that their state’s digital equity efforts are closely connected to broader education and workforce goals; that they are reaching key populations such as rural communities and people of color; and that they are helping individuals and businesses build resiliency in the face of continued rapid technological change. W

Internetforall.gov 

• A Whole-Of-Nation Approach to High-Speed Internet: States and territories across the nation have Signed On to the Internet For All Initiative and committed to connecting their communities to reliable high-speed Internet for less through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment and State Digital Equity Planning Grant Programs. These programs will provide more than $48 billion for infrastructure deployment, skills training and access to technologies essential for Americans to connect with their communities, their democracy, and one another.

Digital Resilience in the American Workforce (DRAW): https://edtech.worlded.org/our-work/draw/

• Building Skills and Literacy for Equitable Advancement: Digital Resilience in the American Workforce (DRAW) is an initiative from JFF, World Education, and Safal Partners, with support from The Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), to better prepare adult education practitioners who support learners that struggle to fully engage in tasks that demand the use of digital technologies. Through DRAW, we will provide the field with flexible, evidence-based, and piloted strategies and materials that help teachers build the digital literacy skills and digital resilience of adult learners. These efforts will help to ensure adult learners can obtain the digital knowledge and skills necessary for postsecondary education and training, employment, civic engagement, and economic self-sufficiency.

CREATE Adult Skills Network: https://createadultskills.org/

• “Technology-enabled instruction” uses online tools and methods to make learning available to a wide population of learners. It holds promise as a way for adults to have better access to high-quality learning both in and out of the classroom. The CREATE Adult Skills Network (the Network) is developing a research base about effective ways to use technology in adult learning. It develops, adopts, and evaluates interventions that use technology to build adult learners’ skills and improve their academic outcomes. The Network’s activities and resources guide practitioners, educators, researchers, and policy and funding stakeholders in their work using technology to support adult skills programming.

Seattle Digital Equity Framework: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-ucdHhRwlBEkEeZR7kDKPSXznWquwVihYpZsFYDNojM/edit

• This framework lists essential digital skill competencies across ten domains. The competency list, also from the Digital skill sets for diverse users report, provides guidance around which domains / skills providers may wish to focus on based on learner type and learner goal(s).

Workforce Professionals Training Institute: https://www.workforceprofessionals.org/blog/more-better-faster-cheaper-wpti-launches-10-month-digital-transformation-learning-community-for-nyc-workforce-development-organizations/  (A professional development effort for frontline workforce center staff)

• Machines and computers have been transforming the modern workplace for decades.  The pandemic supercharged this transformation over the past two years. In response, Workforce Professionals Training Institute (WPTI) has launched the inaugural cohort of our Digital Transformation Initiative (DTI) Learning Community.

Transforming Immigrant Digital Equity (TIDE) project: https://edtech.worlded.org/project/transforming-immigrant-digital-equity-tide/

• Transforming Immigrant Digital Equity (TIDE), which builds upon the findings of the Remote ESOL Project, will dramatically expand access to ESOL learning and related immigrant inclusion supports for immigrants and refugees through scalable, sustainable program models and services that optimize the use of technology. It will also educate service providers and policymakers at three tiers of the ecosystem: effective practice, effective advocacy, and replicable local models.

Ed Tech Center at World Education: https://edtech.worlded.org/

• Advances in digital technologies, when designed and implemented responsibly, can mitigate a range of challenges in education systems around the world. World Education’s award-winning EdTech Center (ETC) works with educators, employers, local partners, youth, families, communities and other system-wide stakeholders in the integration of digital tools and solutions to improve the quality of life and learning outcomes.

Amplifying Impact: Why policies that combine investments in English language and digital literacy are vital: https://nationalskillscoalition.org/blog/racial-equity-and-inclusion/amplifying-impact-why-policies-that-combine-investments-in-english-language-and-digital-literacy-are-vital/

• While strong public policy investments are important at any time, they are even more so as policymakers and skills advocates hurry to identify the best ways to build economic resiliency in a post-pandemic world. NSC’s new report, Amplifying Impact, explores how combining investments in digital skills and English language learning can pay off for workers and businesses alike.

EveryoneOn: everyoneon.org

• EveryoneOn helps unlock social and economic opportunity by connecting people in under-resourced communities to affordable internet service and computers, and providing digital skills trainings.