1. JobScout Reaches Out with
Digital Literacy Essentials Program Featuring
Custom ResumeBuilder and Job Application Service
URL LINK:
www.MyJobScout.org
A new online and mobile platform, JobScout (www.myjobscout.org), is
teachingusers essential digital literacy skills and how to those skills to find work,
offering libraries, employment offices and social service offices an opportunity to
arm their out-of-work clients with the necessary skills to succeed in our online
economy.
The platform’s formula is simple: users take lessons, earn badges for completing
those lessons and apply those lessons to find work. JobScout’s mission is
challenging: the platform’s goal is to teach people how to use the Internet by using
the Internet. And JobScout uses,yet, another non-traditional approach: it works
through local entities, such as libraries, training staff to be the offline entry point
and support network for new Internet users.
At first glance, this may seem elementary. With the online education space
focusing heavily on continuing education and giving users access to college
courses or advanced computer skills, like coding,as JobScout CEO Christina
Gagnier puts it, “Our users need to master what a URL is before they can even
think about the possibility of coding in HTML.”
Using gamificationin its educational materials, users are engaged in a fully-
guidedprocess of learning essentialonline navigation skills most take for
granted.With over30 lessons and counting, users are exposed to wide-range of
skillsets ranging from “Introduction to Internet Browsing” to “Using the Internet to
Prepare for an Interview,” with even more on the horizon.As the user completes
each lesson, badges are awarded to mark progress and encourage lesson
continuation.
The platform also features a custom ResumeBuilder allowing users to create fill-in-
the-blank resumes, a job search function and the platform’s4-step, streamlined
process for applying for and managing job listings using the One Stop Job Shop.
The platform, available nationwide, is in over 600 California libraries and will be
available to alllibrariesin California by the end of 2012. K-12 education institutions
have also begun to subscribe to JobScout to use the tools in their workforce and
adult education programs.
JobScout is free for users and available online. Native mobile applications are
being developed for iOs, set to launch on January 8, 2013, and for Android,
slatedfor release in March 2013. Addressing the growing employment and
education needs of the Spanish speaking population in the United States, the
platform will also launch a version in Spanish in September 2013.

2. JobScout Reaches Out with
Digital Literacy Essentials Program Featuring
Custom ResumeBuilder and Job Application Service
A startup that was never meant to be a startup, JobScout arose from a partnership
of the California State Library, and a call to action to the LINK AMERICAS
Foundation, looking for a solution to aid the millions of California library patrons
who rely on the libraries for their Internet access and source of employment
information.
Without an understanding of where to access or how to log online, a lack of
Internet access often makes finding any kind of employment unusually
difficult.Teaching digital literacy skills is vital to our growing economy and the
decline of unemployment numbers.
Suming up the role ofJobScout in our economic recovery, Gagnier said, “This is
not about fitting people into our old economy. It’s about preparing them for our new
one.”
Contact: Josh Bradley
Director of Marketing & Platform Satisfaction
bradley@discovertrail.com