SESSION CANCELED - Driving Techquity: How Digital Fluency for Today’s Jobs Is Addressing Marginalized Workers

According to Burning Glass, “More than 8 in 10 middle-skill jobs require digital skills.” These digital skills provide career pathways into well-paying jobs. However, the digitalization of the workforce, particularly in Austin’s high-tech environment, has amplified both opportunity and inequality, making it a critical priority for Austin Community College (ACC) to scale a college-wide effort for digital fluency skills. In an effort to educate and upskill the unemployed, underemployed, and those re-careering throughout the Austin area—including those with significant work gaps—the Computer Science and Information Technology Division, in collaboration with ACC’s Career Services, has created a hybrid, user-friendly, adaptive, competency-based education (CBE), open educational resource-based platform to provide an economical means for acquiring high-demand, digital workforce competencies. The initiative offers a highly innovative learning modality geared toward a multi-generational audience in need of accelerated, skill-focused training that supports student access, retention, completion, and equitable career outcomes. Digital Fluency for Today’s Jobs (DFTJ) aims to provide social mobility through a short-term, four-course Occupational Skills Award that has the ability to stack toward a Level 1 & 2 Certificate, as well as a two- and four-year degree offered by ACC.