Workforce Board awards Digital Literacy Grants

The State Workforce Development Board (SWDB) awarded $225,070 in grants to three organizations for the development of programs to improve digital literacy in jobseekers and to help close the digital skills gap. A recent study by the Pew Research Center indicated that roughly 1 in 10 adults said they would have difficulty finding programs and services online, contacting potential employers via email, filling out a job application online, finding available jobs online, and using computers to create a resume. And the Colorado State Library reported that people who used the internet to search for work reduced an individual’s average time unemployed by 25 percent. “While South Carolina’s businesses are hiring and have put a record number of people to work across the state, we have more work to do to prepare those unemployed for today’s workforce. These grants will do help develop programs to improve the computer literacy skills for those in need so they can participate in today’s changing workplace,” said Cheryl Stanton, executive director of the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce and a SWDB board member. The programs receiving funding are the Epworth Children’s Home in Columbia, Greenville County Schools Lifelong Learning and the Medical University of South Carolina’s Project Rex.