THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: COMPUTER USE,
BASIC SKILLS AND EMPLOYMENT
PORTLAND AND LONDON
The study capitalised on the availability of
comparable longitudinal research resources
relevant to the target populations in the USA and
UK. In the USA the Longitudinal Study of Adult
Learning (LSAL), covers those living in the
metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon. In the UK
we used a part of the 1970 British Cohort Study
(BCS70) - those living in Greater London and the
urban parts of the South-East of England (referred
to for convenience as the ‘London study’).
The Portland study comprises a representative
sample of all adults proficient in English aged
18-44 who in 1988 were living in Portland and had
failed to complete high school. These people have
had annual or biannual interviews which included
literacy assessments using the US Test of Applied
Literacy Skills (TALS). This process has been
completed six times since 1998.
The BCS70 sample comprises all 17,000-plus
individuals born in Great Britain in a single week in
1970. The sample has been interviewed at ages 5,
10, 16, 26, 30, 34. At age 34, as part of a
comprehensive interview, there was also a literacy
(and numeracy) assessment based on a reduced
form of the tests used in the 2002 Skills for Life
National Baseline Survey.
The fact that both the UK and US studies carried
out interviews in 2000 and 2004 has made possible
a comparative study of people of a similar age over
the same period of time: 175 LSAL members aged
25-34 in 2000; 402 BCS70 cohort members aged 30
in 2000. To match as closely as possible the
educational level of the LSAL population, the
BCS70 sample was restricted to those with
minimal or no qualifications (Level 1 or below) -
most of whom had left school at the minimum age
of 16 in 1986.
Both studies included:
■ tests of literacy proficiency;
■ measures of computer/internet access and use
both at home and at work;
■ time spent in employment - measured here as
the number of weeks worked as a proportion of
the 104 weeks available over the two years prior
to interview;
■ occupational status - measured from occupation
of current job at the time of interview.
There was also a wide range of comparable
demographic measures e.g. gender, parents’
education, number of children and ethnicity. These
were used as statistical controls, i.e. held constant,
in the analyses.
Both groups were well matched in terms of certain
demographic attributes, such as gender, mean
years of parents’ education and mean age of
leaving school. Notably, during the four-year
period, roughly 10% of LSAL and BCS70 achieved
an educational qualification.
In other ways, the two populations were diverse.
■ Among those in work in both locations, one-fifth
were in skilled manual work, but twice as many
of the London as in the Portland sample were in
non-manual work (50%) and half as many were
in unskilled manual work (28%).
■ 45% of the London sample had yet to become
parents, compared with just 30% in Portland.
■ More than half of the London sample were
homeowners compared with less than a quarter
of the Portland sample.
THE LABOUR MARKET CONTEXT
Important contextual differences existed between
the two locations. The Portland population had
taken up, and maintained, high levels of ICT use by
2000 which had levelled off by 2004. In London ICT
access and use was relatively low in 2000 but rose
quite sharply between 2000 and 2004. Indeed, by
2004, there was convergence between the two
countries.
Another distinctive feature of the Portland context
was a recession in the local economy that caused
fluctuation in the labour market. The proportion
who had not worked in the year prior to interview
increased from 24% in 2000 to 28% in 2004.
However, in the same period there was a
substantial increase in full-time workers. In such a
climate the extent to which ICT and basic skills
competence serves as a form of protection against
redundancy, or enabled those made redundant to
find other jobs, requires close examination.
In London the situation was quite different
throughout the whole period. The economy was
continuing to expand and employers were prepared
to lower their recruitment standards in order to fill
the places available. In such a situation ICT
competence is at a premium in gaining access to
better kinds of job, not jobs per se as in Portland.