By Josh Gottheimer and Jordan Usdan, Chairman's Office
Yesterday, joined by executives and nonprofit leaders, Chairman Genachowski announced a first-of-its kind national effort to address broadband adoption, digital literacy, and the employment skills gap. If you have a moment, there are two articles worth reading from USA Today and the New York Times.
Right now, nearly one-third of the country – 100 million Americans – don’t have high-speed Internet at home. That’s compared to Singapore and Korea where the adoption rates top 90 percent.
Some facts:
- More than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies today, including Wal-Mart and Target, require online job applications.
- Students with broadband at home have a 6-8 percent higher graduation rate as compared to similarly situated students without broadband at home
- Fifty percent of today’s jobs require some technology skills – and this percentage is expected to grow to 77 percent in the next decade.
But the broadband adoption gap is also tremendous opportunity; imagine what having millions of more Americans digitally empowered can mean for the economy: millions more customers for online businesses, more Americans using cost saving e-government services, and more Americans with the digital skills needed to find and land the jobs of today and tomorrow.
Because broadband adoption is key to America’s competitiveness – to jobs, to e-government, to education – we must knock down the barriers to adoption: a) digital literacy, including a lack of trust, or concerns about privacy and safety online; b) cost of the device and connectivity; and c) relevance, the value consumers perceive from broadband.
While there is no silver bullet to close the adoption gap, yesterday’s announcements mark an important first step, particularly for two of those obstacles – digital literacy and consumer relevance.
Actions announced today include:
- The Chairman called for a Digital Literacy Corps to enable thousands more public libraries to hold in-person, basic digital literacy classes and allow schools to do the same after school hours (teaching Americans how to search, use e-mail, utilize parental controls, upload a resume, etc.). Last year, more than 30 million Americans used library connections to seek and apply for jobs, and 12 million children used them to do homework. The Digital Literacy Corps would help Americans, young or old, English or Spanish-speaking, get the skills they need to find and apply for a job, to access educational classes, find health care information, and utilize e-government resources.
- The Chairman also announced a series of offerings from private companies and non-profit, grass-roots organizations to expand digital literacy in communities and provide rich jobs and educational content. The committed companies include: Best Buy’s Geek Squad, Microsoft, Arise Virtual Solutions, CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, MetrixLearning, BrainFuse, Sesame, and Discovery Education. The grassroots organizations include: the Boys and Girls Club, Goodwill, 4H, and members of the Broadband Opportunity Coalition -- the Asian American Justice Center, National Council of La Raza (NCLR), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), National Urban League, One Economy, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and the Minority and Media Telecommunications Council (MMTC).
- The Chairman also announced the creation of “Connect to Compete” – a new non-profit initiative to help execute the commitments, host the jobs and educational content, develop a database with digital literacy classes, and help train digital literacy instructors across the country. For more details on “Connect to Compete” and its private sector and nonprofit partners, visit Connect2Compete.org.
Interested in learning more?
(Cross-posted on the Official FCC Blog)
Earlier today, Chairman Genachowski spoke at the annaul meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in Atlanta. In concert with the conference's "Keeping the Focus" theme, the Chairman spoke to the primary focus of the FCC: the economy and jobs. We're serving this mission through harnessing the opportunities of communications technology and putting an emphasis on innovation.
Like each of you, I understand that the health of America as a nation is inextricably dependent on the health of rural America. My hometown was an agricultural, railroad town in the rural plains of Arkansas, where farmers made their living raising cotton, rice, and soybeans. Just as my hometown farmers realized in the 1920s and 1930s that electricity was essential for them to compete, Americans today realize that broadband is no longer a luxury but a necessity to participate in the modern economy.
Over a century ago, Alexander Graham Bell met with the President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, to demonstrate a new invention: the telephone. After Bell finished his demonstration, the President turned to him and said, “That’s an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?”
