Bundled Digital Literacy and Active Job Search Training
RCTReview
Economically disadvantaged job seekers frequently experience severe digital exclusion, with nearly half of individuals earning under €900 per month lacking basic digital competencies, preventing them from accessing digitised employment portals and online public administration services.
Picture this
Imagine giving a traveler a vehicle to a destination miles away but expecting them to drive without ever teaching them how to operate a car. Providing hardware (a tablet and internet connection) combined with intensive driving lessons (100 hours of hands-on digital skills instruction) equips job seekers to navigate digital highways toward employment opportunities and administrative benefits independently.
What the evidence says
The combined digital literacy program generated statistically significant and durable improvements in digital skills, job search intensity, self-perceived employability, and life satisfaction persisting 6 months post-intervention, whereas hardware provision alone yielded substantially smaller effects and neither treatment significantly increased short-term employment rates.
- Who was studied
- 2,968 minimum income recipients aged 45–65 without secondary education in the Canary Islands, Spain (988 Digital Kit only, 994 RedLab combined, 986 comparison).
- How
- Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) testing a 5-month intervention featuring 100 hours of in-person digital training, job counselling, a 30-hour internship, and a hardware/internet kit.
What to do
Pair hardware equipment grants with mandatory, intensive hands-on digital literacy instruction to enable low-educated older welfare recipients to conduct online job searches and navigate digital administrative procedures.
From the source
"The Redlab program had a positive and substantial impact on digital skills, job search intensity, respondents' perceived ease of finding employment, and life satisfaction, with these effects persisting in the six months after the intervention ended."
promoting-labor-market-inclusion-policy-publication.pdf