Broadband Access Can Improve Job Training, Panelists Say
Increased Internet speed throughout the country is necessary to keep the nation’s low-income workers and unemployed trained and looking for jobs, said panelists. They spoke at a Monday lunch hosted by the Alliance for Digital Equality, the Alliance for Public Technology, and the Communications Workers of America. The $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus funding can help bridge the “digital divide” between connected and underserved areas, they said.
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The need for broadband is especially obvious in rural areas where the “community college is 75 miles away,” said Eileen Appelbaum, director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University. In this “knowledge economy” rural and urban areas that still rely on dial-up Internet will never be able to receive and digest the large amounts of information necessary for training purposes, she said.
“Broadband helps the flow of learning,” said Heather McKay, director of the Sloan Center on Innovative Training and Workforce Development at Rutgers. Transportation costs to get to community colleges or libraries is often a major impediment for many lower-income workers who need training, something easier access to broadband Internet can overcome, she said. Training via broadband also eliminates racial or ethnic problems that come up in a classroom, such as language barriers, she said.
“Legacy systems” have kept many urban regions from becoming fully reliant on faster connections, said Vanessa Spinner, associate dean for workforce development and community outreach at the University of the District of Columbia. Still, broadband can help create “ubiquitous campuses” that people can use at any hour of the day from any place with a Web connection, she said.