Educational Pathways to Remote Employment in Isolated Communities

Abstract

Abstract:Those who live in isolated communities often lack reliable, skilled employment opportunities, which fundamentally undermines their human security. For individuals who wish to remain in their isolated communities for family, religious, philosophical or other reasons, their attachment to their communities creates a disincentive for higher education. This promotes low educational achievement, which in turn results in low socioeconomic status, lack of social mobility, and a generational cycle of poverty. The human misery that results from such a feedback loop is observed in isolated communities throughout North America, including aboriginal communities in Canada. Fortunately, maturation of information and communication technologies now offers individuals the potential to gain high-skilled employment while living in an isolated community, using both (i) virtual work/remote work and (ii) remote training and education. To examine that potential, this study: 1) categorizes high-skill careers that demand a higher education and are widely viable for remote work, 2) examines options for obtaining the required education remotely, and 3) performs an economic analysis of investing in remote education, quantifying the results in return on investment. The results show that the Internet has now opened up the possibility of both remote education and remote work. Though the investment in college education is significant, there are loans available and the return on investment is generally far higher than the interest rate on the loans. The results identified several particularly promising majors and dozens of high-income careers. The ability to both obtain an education and employment remotely offers the potential to lift many people living in isolated communities out of poverty, reduce inequality overall, and provide those living in isolated communities with viable means of employment security, which not only allows personal sustainability, but also the potential for personal growth.

Telework, Hybrid Work and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals: Towards Policy Coherence

“…Their investigation sought to understand whether this move to online learning could be leveraged to address long-term US workforce skills gaps, equitably and sustainably, and concluded that "these online platforms can provide an accessible and inclusive environment to learn new skills" [85]. Importantly, Dekenberger, Way, and Pearce [83] investigated how telework, along with remote training and education, can be combined to offer skilled employment opportunities to isolated communities. They concluded that the Internet has opened up many new telework and education opportunities to people choosing to remain in remote communities for family, religious, philosophical, or other reasons, and has the potential to help these people "out of poverty, reduce inequality overall, and provide those communities with viable means of employment security, now, and in the future" [83].…”

“…Importantly, Dekenberger, Way, and Pearce [83] investigated how telework, along with remote training and education, can be combined to offer skilled employment opportunities to isolated communities. They concluded that the Internet has opened up many new telework and education opportunities to people choosing to remain in remote communities for family, religious, philosophical, or other reasons, and has the potential to help these people "out of poverty, reduce inequality overall, and provide those communities with viable means of employment security, now, and in the future" [83].…”

Retraining investment for U.S. transition from coal to solar photovoltaic employment

“…First, the selection of closest positions between the coal and solar industry used was open to error and will in many cases be dependent on particular individual's interests along with specific job and training opportunities. This mobility of workers from one industry to another varies widely (Judy and D'Amico, 1997) although the ability for remote education is enabling more mobility in some sectors (Denkenberger et al, 2015). As noted earlier there is substantial online training possible in the solar industry.…”

Postsecondary Inuit Students From Nunavut Pathways: When Students’ Satisfaction Meets Language Discrimination

“…We can also link those results to the positive impacts of postsecondary education on Indigenous Canadians in terms of employment and income (Hull, 2005). Denkenberger et al (2015) have also highlighted the positive economic impact of postsecondary education for graduates in Northern communities.…”