In short – people will lose / are losing jobs, let’s reskill and upskill them into digital while they are at home and have not much to do.

Long version: Regardless of how severe the pandemic will become, it is now inevitable that there will be a global recession. China’s GDP in Q1 2020 contracted 13% and 5 million people lost their jobs, US estimates its GDP to contract by 24% in Q2 2020 and International Labor Organisation expects 25 million jobs to be lost due to COVID-19 globally. This is worse than during 2008 financial crisis.

Lithuania will not be an exception regardless of how well we’ll contain the virus. People will lose jobs and many will be unemployed, especially in the hard-hit sectors, like travel and accommodation. Right now and soon to come, major part of the workforce will sit at home in quarantine either suspended or already jobless.

However, this quarantine can be seen as an unprecedented opportunity to upskill or reskill the Lithuanian labour force, especially those who have lost employment or are suspended – they have time on their hands that they can spend learning and fear of not finding employment that will be motivating to learn. Moreover, as government has committed to pay subsidies to those suspended and unemployed, it is fair to request these people to invest in their skills to become employable. We believe that digital skills training is the way to go. 

SOLUTION: BitDegree

Skaitmenizuokis.lt – a mass reskilling & upskilling campaign into digital for Lithuania that integrates the entire ecosystem of stakeholders to facilitate skill acquisition through online means and supports every person though individual mentoring. The website is the central spot to gather and engage this ecosystem. The most important drive of success – make people commit to reskilling / upskilling, provide them with a clear learning path and prevent drop-out through individual mentoring.  For people willing to reskill / upskill:

  • State your current digital literary status and learning intent through questionnaires and quizes;
  • Apply for mentorship and commit to learning;
  • Get personalised guidance from a dedicated mentor on what to learn to achieve your learning goals: reskill into a programmer or a customer support specialist, etc; find how to earn online; transition your small business online and find new customers; learn how to run your business remotely; learn how to work remotely if you are still a bit perplexed by computers and the internet;  
  • Enrol into a learning path that is suggested for you, whether free or paid (sponsored);
  • Get coaching from the dedicated mentor while your are learning;
  • Get coaching from the dedicated mentor even if you are trying to do something DIY – transition your business online;
  • Mentor will hold you hand until you will reach your goal, which might also be a new job.

For mentors from the tech scene, HR people, psychologist and anyone who wants to help:

  • Volunteer your time to help a person in-need to transition to new skills, new career, reshaped and recovered business;
  • Your knowledge is very valuable, therefore what takes you a minute to understand might mean a week of effort for somebody who is just starting. Share your precious time to make high impact mentoring. Set a schedule that is fair for you and your mentee.
  • Do it for Lithuania, do it for your family and friends – when you start giving, karma gives you back in ways you couldn’t think of.

For tech companies:

  • Find tech talent;
  • Volunteer your staff to develop tech talent for Lithuania and advance the tech scene;
  • Share your trainings on digital skills;
  • Help Lithuania recover and thrive in a more digital Lithuania;
  • It’s the real deal in CSR and branding;  

For government:

  • It’s a one-stop-shop high-impact initiative that works around the slow and cumbersome education system to deliver fast and practical vocational training that can increase labour effectiveness significantly and land them jobs;
  • Digital Lithuanians can work from Lithuanian in the global digital market – Lithuania’s competitiveness will rise so will the exports and GDP;
  • Establish conditions where online learning would be recognised and could bear education credits, diplomas and degrees;
  • Recommend people on financial support to use this time to learn and enable them to do so – fund their learning, ensure that there is training available online – invest in the ecosystem or creation of such training offerings.

For training providers:

  • Offer your training in this central database so that it is clear for people what to learn;
  • It’s the perfect opportunity to transition your offline training into online. If you don’t know how – use bitdegree.org platform free of charge and get support in digitalising your training offering.
  • Get revenue or get karma points if you are giving you training for free.