Digital Literacy Bootcamp

Digital Literacy Bootcamp is a 3-month training program aiming to equip underprivileged youth with the digital skills needed to be employable and to be a lifelong learner. The bootcamp will help to bridge the digital literacy gap that hampers potential youth to secure well-paying jobs in the knowledge economy.

The solution

Our solution is to create an effective and scalable training system that can equip underprivileged youth with digital literacy.

The format is a 3-month bootcamp that combines the use of a localized social learning platform and interaction with trained instructors.

The program will focus on high school graduates who have a little chance/can not afford to go to college. We will reach the target group through schools and/or youth communities and organizations as the vehicles.

How The Solution Address The Challenge

The future of the workforce requires people not only to possess the skills needed by current workforce but also to be a lifelong learner. This is the reason why we focus on digital literacy instead other skills. Digital literacy is a foundational and transferable skill that is not only highly demanded in the current labor market. It also enables students to adapt well to any change by being able to navigate the digital environment, evaluate information, and create technology-based content.

There are already a few online learning materials to learn digital literacy (e.g FutureEdge; the digital literacy program from Capital One, Microsoft Digital Literacy curriculum). Our solution addresses the challenge by:

1. Localizing the materials
2. Bringing the materials to the groups who need them most
3. Setting the teaching process in an environment that is familiar for the participants

Effect of Scale

If we can build a learning management system for digital literacy skill that can be localized for each country/language, anyone across the world could organize the similar program. The instructors could come from all backgrounds, as long as they are willing to be trained.

If scaled, this Digital Literacy Bootcamp could bridge the digital literacy gap, fulfill the demand for middle-skill workers, and trains underprivileged youth across the world to be lifelong learners.

In Indonesia, >7 million people are unemployed every year. The unemployment among the country's youth is at an unusually high level. This is due to skill mismatch in the labor market. There is a high demand for workers to fulfill middle-skill roles (e.g. sales, administration) in the growing service sector that require ICT/digital literacy. But in lower-middle income countries like Indonesia, computer competencies are scarce even among managers. The education system is not quick enough to cater to this growing need. There needs to be an effective and scalable training system to equip youth with this skill.

A research from MIT and Harvard found that online learners who got online help did better than those who did not. Diana Laurillard, Professor at UCL Institute of Education argued that education is a personal client--not a mass customer--industry. Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff also argued that online courses need a human element to educate as people learn best as part of a cohort.

This is why we believe our proposal will solve the problem because we focus on creating an environment where underprivileged youth could learn effectively as a group while making use of the available technology of online learning materials.

Our target outcomes are as follows:

1. Participation: 1200 people participate in the bootcamp across multiple locations every year

2. Certification: 80% of bootcamp participants get digital literacy certificate

3. Job placement: 80% of bootcamp participants are employed in middle-skill roles within 6 months of finishing the program

Track number of participants in every location - 1200 people participate in the bootcamp across multiple locations every year

Integrate certification test to learning management system, track passing rate - 80% of bootcamp participants get digital literacy certificate

Retain engagement with participants within 6 months of bootcamp graduation - 80% of bootcamp participants are employed in middle-skill roles within 6 months of finishing the program

The solution is not novel in its use of technology because learning management system (LMS) is already a commercial tech. The solution is novel, though, in its topic (digital literacy) and its format (intensive bootcamp) to the target audience (underprivileged youth in Indonesia).

Our solution does not only include providing online learning materials, but also taking into account how the materials could be utilized successfully. We realize that people learn better in a familiar environment and that psychological safety is important in the learning process. That is why our solution’s format is a bootcamp in schools or communities--an environment where our target participants are already familiar with.

Our solution will be deployed through schools and/or communities. The target audience would be able to learn about digital literacy in an environment that is familiar to them. We would also consider hosting the learning materials on intranet for areas with insufficient internet connectivity.

We would like to involve employers in service sector who could commit to bulk job placement for middle-skill roles. They would help us design the bootcamp to better suit their needs, and there will be a fee per headcount charged to the employers for every graduate they hire from our program.

Employers' perception towards the potential of trained underprivileged youth: they might not see the participants as an ideal group of talents.

We want access to a community of people who tackle similar problems, so we could learn from the existing best practices and mentorship, and explore opportunities for partnership and scale in other regions.