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Building a Digitally Resilient Workforce: Creating On-Ramps to Opportunity

May 5, 2020

At a Glance

The country faces an urgent need to design, build, and scale the on-ramps and supports that millions of adult learners and workers need to improve their digital skills.

Contributors
Josh Copus Senior Director

Now more than ever, we need to collectively build towards a future where all of us have the confidence to use technology and data to solve our problems.

Building a Digitally Resilient Workforce: Creating On-Ramps to Opportunity
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There are 32 million adults in the United States who are locked out of opportunities for economic advancement because they lack basic digital literacy skills. This is a problem that exacerbates existing inequalities.

Creating an ecosystem that supports learners and workers in their efforts to obtain basic digital skills is an important first step to improving the situation. A precursor to more advanced technical expertise, digital literacy is an on-ramp to stable careers that pay good wages.

But treating digital literacy as an endpoint isn’t enough. The job market is evolving, and the technical skills that employers are seeking are continually shifting. That’s why an organization called Digital US is focused on ensuring that all Americans have the personalized supports and opportunities they need to develop “digital resilience.”

Now more than ever, we need to collectively build towards a future where all of us have the confidence to use technology and data to solve our problems, where institutions put procedures aside and focus on people, and where our leaders are more oriented toward opportunities than obstacles.

Josh Copus, Director, JFFLabs

A coalition of companies and organizations that includes JFF, EdSurge, NAWB, and World Education, Digital US addresses the need for digital resilience in an inaugural report titled “Building a Digitally Resilient Workforce: Creating On-Ramps to Opportunity.” Highlighting the urgent need to support digital skills development for all Americans, the report argues that designing, building, and scaling the on-ramps and supports that millions of adult learners and workers need is a social impact imperative.

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