Labour in a digital age: Skilled workers need Internet literacy to succeed.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: BUSIGN-BUILD

Anew study being led by Literacy .Northwest in Thunder Bay, and funded by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, is examining a new trend that shows modern-day skilled labourers must have a high level of familiarity with digital technology to remain competitive in their respective industries.

Research shows working in the trades is becoming more difficult for those who have been long-time labourers because they're unfamiliar with digital technology, said Stewart Kallio, principal consultant for the project. A good example is automotive mechanics, which is shifting towards the use of electronic diagnosis, electronic assessment in equipment. searching online for product material information. and computerized diagnosis, requiring a high level of digital literacy. Kallio said.

"Those experienced journeypersons are not able to train their apprentices because they have difficulty with the computer side of things," he said. "They've been performing competently in the trade for years and the trade has changed around them."

The project examines three skilled trades: carpentry fridge and air conditioning service mechanics, and automotive service.

A worker examining a broken dishwasher can now use his smartphone to look online for previous problems associated with a certain dishwasher brand. He can then follow the solution offered, or, if he finds a different solution, can share his knowledge online with others.

"It became a whole process of using a smartphone to get all the information to solve the problem, fix it, and then to record what he did and document it and archive it," Kallio said. "So the next time he or someone else faces the same problem, it's all there on record in digital form."

The Internet and smartphones are becoming indispensable resources for those in the skilled trades, and if workers aren't familiar with their function, it becomes a problem.

But skilled workers' digital literacy goes beyond just knowing how to use the basic functions of a device, he added. Users must be able to problem solve, find the information online, retrieve it, organize it to make sense, and then transmit it to someone else.

"It becomes a really highly complex skill that we...