Digital literacy, tech readiness on the table as federal grant funds new Maryville College Digital Edge program
May 29, 2024
In a world in which technology is becoming an integral part of every career field, ensuring Maryville College students are as digitally literate as they are book-smart is one of the challenges facing the MC Career Center.
With the recent announcement that the College has received a Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) Digital Skills, Education and Workforce Development (DSEW) grant worth more than $775,000, however, the center feels good about rising to meet that challenge.
“We want our students to attain successful post-graduation outcomes and be ready for a variety of careers. The National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE) lists technology as one of the career readiness competencies, and another recent survey of employers revealed the importance for students to showcase both technical skills and computer skills on a resume,” said Dr. Niklas Trzaskowski, director of the Maryville College Career Center. “A different survey showed how a micro-credential could make a difference when someone applies for a job. Closer to home, survey results show the difficulty of finding employees who have specific tech skills.
“Dr. Dan Klingensmith (vice president and dean of the College), Dr. Heather McMahon (assistant dean for academic success), and a couple of other folks across campus had already begun the process of exploring different opportunities to strengthen the technology skills of our students. Then, Amy White (the College’s director of grant development) —on what might have been her second week on the job! — shared information about this grant opportunity with me, and I thought this is exactly what we should pursue.”
Funded by the Tennessee Emergency Broadband Fund – American Rescue Plan (TEBF-ARP), the federal dollars were approved by Congress in 2021 and distributed to states for various improvement projects. In creating the DSEW grant from those funds, the TNECD has laid out a statewide effort to increase access to high-speed internet and create digital opportunities for all Tennesseans. Of the $162.7 million in statewide grant funds, Maryville College received $776,814, which will be officially awarded on July 1 and fund the Maryville College Digital Edge Program through Dec. 31, 2026.
According to Trzaskowski, the program will be administered through the MC Career Center, where he and his team will help students discover and enroll in the best courses to strengthen their digital skills and allow them to complete micro-credentials — qualifications that focus upon specific technological disciplines through one or more accelerated educational training programs. Through the Digital Edge Program, up to 350 MC students at a time will be able to subscribe to a courseware company, and grant funds will cover testing certification costs.
“In addition, the grant fund will also allow the College to purchase some loaner laptops to loan to students to complete digital skill-building courses,” White said.
“We plan to bring on a program coordinator, who, among other things, will be able to help students, faculty, and staff select relevant courses and provide guidance on how to access the learning platform,” Trzaskowski added. “We hope to offer programming beginning with the fall semester.”
In addition, the Digital Edge Program will involve faculty and staff members, White added. The program coordinator that will be hired through grant funds will work with faculty members on ways to incorporate digital skills programming into their course curricula, and micro-credential certifications will allow MC employees to expand their own skillsets.
“Faculty, like staff, will benefit directly from training themselves,” McMahon said. “For example, some of our faculty who work in quantitative analysis have mentioned that they would like training in using R, which is a newer program for statistical analysis. Having that training would not only allow those folks to better conduct their own research, but would also help them better teach students how to use R.
“We also foresee faculty incorporating micro-credentials and other pieces of digital training into their classes as assignments. This fall, the Career Center will invite faculty across campus to partner on the Digital Edge program, so that we can identify even more ways for students to have these credentialing opportunities built right into the curriculum.”
The Maryville-based Blount Partnership — an arm of the Blount County Chamber of Commerce that promotes economic growth, stability and development and is a frequent partner for various College-community endeavors — provided much of the workforce data the College used to justify the grant application, White added. However, local employment trends, Trzaskowski pointed out, tend to mirror national ones, and the digital skills the grant will help MC students learn and improve will be ones that serve them globally as well as locally.
“I think one thing that we are all in agreement on is that this program really will offer students the opportunity to further strengthen their already outstanding liberal arts education by gaining familiarity with digital skills,” Trzaskowski said.