a few years ago I was walking down the street here in Washington DC and I passed a fast-food restaurant that was opening soon in the window of the restaurant there was a huge sign and it said we're hiring apply online I was struck by that sign and that moment I realized that in our society today even for those jobs that we consider entry-level or or that are pretty low paid even for those jobs just to apply you need to know how to use technology in order to apply for that job at that fast-food restaurant you
need to be able to find and use a computer a computer that is connected to the Internet you need to have the know how to navigate and fill out a web form you might even need to be advanced enough to write and format a resume and word and upload it onto that web form over the past 20 years we have made a decision in this society to be tech based and that's amazing I used my iPhone as my alarm this morning I caught an uber to get here I typed this speech on my laptop and
saved it in the cloud I use FaceTime to talk with my nieces and my nephews but at the same time that we made this choice to be a tech based society we've also made a choice to leave millions of people behind there are 31 million adults in this country that don't have access to the Internet at home it would be challenging for them to apply for that fast-food job let alone to move up in the company or apply and secure other careers that would help them stay in the middle class I know that I wouldn't
be standing here today without edge occasion and training my parents didn't go to college and we struggled financially I would spend my evenings doing my homework with a flashlight when our electricity was shut off because my parents couldn't afford to pay the bills when I was five years old before I even started kindergarten my parents told me that I needed to get an education and I needed to get training that it was the only way that I was going to have a better life because of the vast technological changes in our economy that lesson for
my parents is even more pressing today since 2002 the United States economy has lost 28 million low tech jobs just 17 years ago there were 28 million more jobs that were available to people with no tech skills or low tech skills those jobs don't exist anymore or they now require you to have medium or high tech skills in other words the jobs themselves have changed and the people who held those jobs are the same people who have traditionally been left out of our economy there are women people of color older workers people without college degrees
and so we are at a critical juncture right now we can choose to react in one of two ways we can choose to continue with the status quo which means that millions of our friends and neighbors and co-workers are left out of technology and left out of all of its financial and social and health benefits we can also choose to react in a way we never have before we can ensure that people of all ages get access to technology and learn how to use it I want to be clear here that I'm not talking about
teaching everyone to code there are millions of jobs in this economy that are tech based that are not software engineering jobs not everyone wants to code but everyone in our society needs basic and intermediate tech skills in order to thrive we have the ability to bridge the digital divide we have the resources and we have the know-how what we're missing is being brave enough and committed enough to do so if every child in the United States had access to a computer to broadband and to the training to use those items we could eliminate the digital
divide in less than a generation and we would see a completely different United States one with much more opportunity but I want to push us farther I am NOT okay with those 31 million adults being left out it's never too late to learn how to use a computer to start using technology to communicate with your health care providers your friends and families those 31 million adults need digital skills so that they can get those middle-class jobs so that they can support their families and so we need to provide tech training for adults of all ages
we need to build digital literacy programs in community colleges and nonprofits with government agencies for adults we have to teach basic critical tech skills to adults who would otherwise do without and we have to partner with corporations and Internet service providers to figure out creative ways to get internet and to get devices into the hands of people from all walks of life three years ago I met Angela Angela came up to me and she said tech training saved my life Angela was living in her car she was working but couldn't find a job that paid
enough to enable her to support herself she is smart and creative and dead but without the essential technical skills that you need in this economy she was stuck in a cycle of poverty never making enough to get by and then Angela found a nonprofit where she learned how to use tech within a few months she had an IT certification and she had a job in IT she now has a career that she loves she has her own apartment and she's thriving that conversation with Angela changed my life too I saw that her future the trajectory
of her life was completely changed because of the education and training she received just like mine was and Angela didn't even need to go to four years of college or shoulder the crushing student debt that so many Americans have she just needed a few months of training access to technology so that she could practice what she learned and a supportive system that helped her do so technology is a missing link to solve the pervasive inequality that millions of people in the United States face people like Angela and people like my family if we really believe
that all people have potential then we have to give them the essential technological tools that are essential for economic sustainability and social participation in the 21st century we have the resources we know how to give this training what we're missing is the will if we invest in tech training for people of all ages we will see a different society we will help millions of people to harness the transformative power of technology in the workforce in their communities and in our society for generations to come thank you [Applause] [Music]
