Closing the Digital Divide in Jamaica by Donovan Reynolds
Outside of my commitments as CEO of Kingstonmouth.com., I am communication officer for the Universal Service Fund (USF) a quasi-governmental organization. Its mission is to positively impact Jamaica’s socio-economic development by enabling a knowledge-based society through universal access to the Internet and digital inclusion. ICT training nationally can be an enabler of and inhibitor to national development in lesser developing countries, as the less fortunate do not have the economic resources to pay for ICT training. Consequently, there is a yawning gap between the digitally-haves and the digitally have-nots. Meanwhile, anecdotal evidence from the classified advertisement pages suggest that the job market for graduates who understand the technical and human sides of information technology is steadily growing in Jamaica. The Universal Service Fund aims to engage “unattached” young people on the margins of society through provision of a one-year ICT programme, regardl