Printer-friendly versionA couple of months ago, a student pulled me aside to ask for help with a job application. As a teacher working with adult immigrants and refugees, I hear this request fairly often. After class, we discussed the job she wanted –housekeeping for one of the large hotel chains in the area. Paper applications were no longer accepted.
We looked at their website together. Not only was the application exclusively available online, but applicants were also asked to upload a resume onto the website. “A resume?” I thought, incredulous. “For a housekeeping job?”
Furthermore, my student was expected to create an online profile for her job search and to be able to receive communications through email. My student had arrived about two years earlier from an area of rural Ethiopia where it was uncommon for girls to attend school. Her reading level in English was at about a first-grade level. She had no email account or experience typing documents.
The reality of today’s workforce is that employers are asking for more computer literacy skills from their workers. This situation with my student required more than just the basic ability to read and write the English language. This was more about just understanding how computers and the Internet work. Perhaps it is unintentional, but making job applications online-only creates a filter that divides the workforce into two camps—those who can use computers and those who cannot.
For this reason, as teachers, we really need to teach technology skills to our students. The time of reading, writing and arithmetic as the “basics” is over. Since entry-level custodial and housekeeping jobs require computer skills, we know that our job is to teach these skills explicitly. Our students need to be able to write and save documents, open and maintain email accounts, use their cell phones effectively, manage their bank accounts online, find housing and comparison-shop online. The only access our students may have to a computer could be at school or a public library.
I consider myself fortunate to have access to a computer lab. For my beginning ESL students, we practice turning on the computer, logging in, maneuvering the Internet, typing Web addresses, clicking on links and navigating the buttons on the keyboard. For my intermediate/advanced ESL students, we practice opening email accounts, checking and responding to emails, finding apartments on Craigslist, looking for jobs, typing and saving resumes and responding to questions on our class blog.
We are also very fortunate to have an AmeriCorps member from the Community Technology Empowerment Project (CTEP) at our school. The CTEP members provide invaluable support to classroom teachers, as well as teaching stand-alone computer classes. Our CTEP member was also able to sit down with the student, to help her create an online profile and resume. With guidance, our students do not have to live on the other side of a digital divide. We can teach them to master the technology that surrounds them.
Anfinson is an ELL civics teacher in Minnesota.
Comments
Thank you for writing this.
Thank you for writing this. It is such a struggle to help some of my community college students understand that even if they don't like computers, there is no job where they will be able to escape the need for technological literacy. I teach in rural Appalachia, and the digital divide in this region has severely hurt my adult students who had worked for companies that are now gone. We added a basic computer skills course to help such students transition to using computers just for college classes. Since many of our students are returning after years of being out of school, many of them have never before typed a paper. Double spaced lines mean nothing to them, and even many of them who have a Facebook profile don't know how to upload or attach a document online. I believe that it isn't enough just to teach my students how to write anymore. I also have to teach them how to digitally present that information as well.
Thank you. All educators need
Thank you. All educators need to be aware of this issue.
As an HR professional, I
As an HR professional, I agree that computer literacy (in addition to English literacy) can be a stumbling block for otherwise-qualified candidates. Over the past 10 years, there has been a trend towards online talent management systems which allow employers to compile, search and filter candidates' information. While this is a much more efficient system for screening applicants, it also creates a challenge for those without computer skills (or access to a computer and the Internet), as well as non-English speakers and people with disabilities.
The case law that shaped the employment discrimination provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (Title VII) includes a lawsuit against a city government that implemented a literacy test requirement for sanitation workers. As a result, Federal law now requires that job qualifications be directly related to the candidate's ability to perform the job. From an employer's standpoint, even if there is not intent to discriminate (although the case I mentioned was intentional) the employer may be liable if there is disparate impact of a job qualification or policy upon a protected class.
There are several accomodations that employers can make available to encourage an inclusive workplace, such as providing paper applications, making translations of applications and other documents available, and using Web coding languages that are compatible with screen reading software used by people with physical disabilities.
Very glad to see that educators are seeing the importance of developing these skills. I definitely think that basic computer literacy is becoming a standard requirement in most workplaces - even if an employee is not at a workstation all day, it's likely they'll need to keep records, log their time, access documents or policy, or communicate with other employees using a Web-based system. These are functional skills that make the difference between getting a job offer and getting passed over for another candidate.