digital skills gap for Hispanic and Latino workforce
digital skills gap for Hispanic and Latino workforce

The risk of being left behind in the tech workforce

A conversation with Frankie Miranda, president & CEO, Hispanic Federation, and Mauricio Garcia, SVP of programs, UnidosUS
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In this episode of Work in Progress, Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation, and Mauricio Garcia, senior VP of programs for UnidosUS join me to discuss the digital divide that is threatening to create further barriers to family-sustaining jobs for Latinos and Hispanics.

You’ve probably heard about the digital gap or digital divide in the U.S. For U.S. Latinos that gap is significant. According to the Pew Research Center, 80% of whites are connected to broadband internet while only 65% of Latinos are. And Latinos may get less encouragement to seek digital training or jobs requiring digital skills.

That digital disparity means Latinos as a group face more challenges when job-seeking. Without a high level of digital skills, Latinos and others are increasingly shut out of career opportunities.

As Latinos are set to drive nearly 80% of workforce growth by 2030, closing the digital divide is not just a social priority, it’s an economic imperative.

I spoke with Miranda and Garcia at the JFF Horizons conference in Washington, D.C., in July. We discussed how community-based organizations, upskilling programs, and policy initiatives are working to bridge the gap and empower the Latino workforce.

You can listen to the entire conversation here, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find it on the Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 335: Frankie Miranda, president & CEO, Hispanic Federation, and Mauricio Garcia, SVP of programs, UnidosUS
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.