Training is underway for the first cohort of the Remote Ready Hawaii pilot program, which brings together unemployed residents with remote work from companies outside the state. The program offers Hawaiian residents the opportunity to participate in a growing sector of the global digital economy, but it may require more than employee training to help workers compete.
The Remote Ready Hawaii pilot program starts small with nearly 100 residents trained as customer service or business development professionals. Ka? Ala Souza works with the Workforce Development Council, which has partnered with the government and the private sector to offer the program.
“So we’re working with a small cohort over the next six months to train them over three or four weeks. They are paid during the program and then hired, “says Souza,” so they will start working right away. “
Promising news for the 58,000+ residents of Hawaii who are still unemployed, said Scott Murakami, head of the economic innovation team at the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. But there is also a bigger picture.
“Remote working really isn’t just an issue of realizing immediate opportunities for the Hawaiian workforce. It’s a way of making ourselves more resilient, “says Murakami,” but we have to be able to compete in this environment. “
For residents with basic computer skills, Souza says they have an advantage and may not even need the pilot program to compete in the global digital economy.
“We realized that there are innumerable opportunities for people to change their careers almost immediately,” says Souza. “You now know that when Google announces in 2020 that they will be doing this month-long certification instead of a four-year degree, suddenly everything starts to turn inside out.”
But it’s not just Hawaiian residents who seek remote work. For the pilot program to be successful, Souza says the state must invest in digital literacy training and strengthen the islands’ broadband infrastructure.
