Bridging the Educational and Technological Gap through Programs for Students

The technology gap continues to widen between urban residents, mainly lower-income; and suburban residents, mainly middle/upper income.  Financial decisions are being made daily concerning household expenditures and family priorities.  Many neighborhood parents and other adults are unaware of the real potential of the ever expanding "Information Superhighway" and its impact on the competitive nature of our society.  The inability of these neighborhood residents to access the current technology put them at a distinct disadvantage in competing for information and related opportunities.  Our youth represent the most at risk with the absence of technological resource in their growth process.

In our community, like in many across the country, much attention has been paid to the development and training as it pertains to computer/digital technology in the hands of our youth. Clearly, without such access and knowledge, they operate at a severe disadvantage in our society.  It becomes our challenge in New Brunswick to seek ways to insure that these disparities are minimized.  It is obvious that inner cities resources have become more difficult to secure for activities such as the arts, physical education, public speaking, and debating -- activities which require its students to participate collectively with each other.

As a result, when technology is available to them, generally, our young students often apply this new found resource in a more individualist and self-centered manner. Although our focus is on the youth, we affirm that it is never too late to learn. An analysis of League’s employment applicants over the last few years indicates that our constituents fall more and more into the unskilled and semi-skilled categories. The League’s aim is to assist individuals in obtaining gainful employment in accordance with their skill, education and capabilities through our employment procurement services, which includes access to our community Technology center with Internet access. It is apparent that occupations requiring higher educational and technical skills will continue to grow, demanding a different skilled labor force than the goods-producing jobs they have been replacing.

There must be an effort made to harness the power of today’s digital network technologies to engage a civic-collaborative to garner mutual talents, skills and the overall community benefits of such, through the minds, imaginations and aspirations of our youth to become responsible leaders of our society.