Comcast is partnering with the National Skills Coalition on widespread education in an aim to “help close the digital skill divide that is currently limiting educational and employment opportunities for nearly 50 million Americans,” according to the announcement released Jan. 24.
The $200,000 Comcast granted to the NSC is to supplement current federal upskilling programs under the Digital Equity Act and the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program. The DEA has an estimated $2.75 billion in funding and the BEAD program has $42 billion in funding, per NSC and Comcast’s statement.
The DEA supports “digital skill-building and efforts to advance awareness of adoption programs such as the Affordable Connectivity Program.”
BEAD, in turn, is a vehicle not just to increase broadband, digital device and digital skill accessibility for what NSC calls “unserved or underserved” communities. Additionally, it funds L&D for local talent to install and maintain the new digital infrastructures in their communities.
Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation President and Comcast Corporation CDO and EVP Dalila Wilson-Scott noted the industrywide increase in tech skill demand. “When digital skills grow, our economy grows,” Wilson-Scott said in the statement.
This partnership falls under Comcast’s ongoing L&D efforts, titled Project UP.
