Team Pennsylvania takes a broad approach to digital equity, encompassing work on skills, devices, and connectivity. Through a $30,000 grant from AT&T, Team Pennsylvania aims to provide cross-sector, statewide leadership on this important topic. Team Pennsylvania plans to hold a convening in summer 2022 that aligns and amplifies digital equity work across the public, private and non-profit sectors in the commonwealth.

In addition to holding a convening on the topic of digital equity, Team Pennsylvania is supporting digital literacy badging through SmartFutures, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that provides electronic portfolios for K-12 students to track their career development activities. Through the SmartFutures portal, secondary students can complete Northstar Digital Literacy modules to earn badges and ultimately a completion certificate acknowledging acquisition of basic digital literacy skills. Since July 2019, students have earned more than 19,500 digital literacy credentials through SmartFutures and Northstar.

Team Pennsylvania is also supporting a cross-agency planning process to advance statewide digital skill development, in partnership with the Governor’s Policy Office, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, the Pennsylvania Workforce Development Board, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development, and the Office of Commonwealth Libraries. The cross-agency team is reviewing data to understand the current state of digital skills in the commonwealth and determine the unmet need, in order to identify occupations or populations of focus for targeted efforts to increase digital skills. Team Pennsylvania is working with leadership across the participating agencies to identify ways to incorporate private sector leadership to coordinate efforts.