Adult Latinos shift to email in search for jobs

By Elizabeth Pfeffer

As job listings move from newspapers to online classifieds, many Latino adults are lacking the computer skills needed to obtain jobs.

With this shift, someone looking for a low- or a high-skilled position is at an advantage with a typed resume and the ability to email it.

“I have a limitation if I don’t have computer skills,” said Loyda Ortiz, 62, originally from Puerto Rico.

She was one of six participants in the Mission Branch Library’s most recent free introductory email class. The class is taught in Spanish and has been offered once a month since December 2007.

Assistant Librarian Ricardo Cisneros is the third torchbearer of the program that was funded by a grant from Friends of the Library.

In painstaking detail and with boundless patience he talks the room through the intricacies of sending and receiving email, detecting spam and signing up for a Yahoo or Gmail account.

The adult students sit hunched over their keyboards, pointer fingers extended, deciphering shapes and symbols to accomplish what the computer literate can do in seconds.

“It’s a basic class to get people a little more comfortable,” said Cisneros. “Everyone gets something out of it.”

“It also helps the librarians because people aren’t taking up their time asking for that kind of assistance,” added Ramon Hernandez, a library page who helps out with the class as well.

Ortiz, an avid reader and letter writer, said she wants to learn computer skills so she can get a job in customer service.

“It will make more opportunities and I can apply for more jobs,” she said. “But it’s not my favorite thing.”

While it can be frustrating learning to use an unfamiliar machine, Cisneros said most people eventually figure it out.

Fortunately for the Mission District, as the need for computer proficiency grows so does the community’s response to that need.

There are several free programs that aim to help immigrants develop technical skills, be they for basic job hunting or a career niche.

Arriba Juntos is one of those organizations, catering to adult immigrants and at-risk youth. While it offers a broad range of job training, introduction to computers and word processing is available in Spanish.

“By far the youth are well more versed in computer skills,” Youth Program Manager Stefan Arcelona. “Even the younger ones are much advanced.”

However, Arcelona has noticed that there is a divide between generations. He said he’d be amazed if most of the youth didn’t have computers given their abilities.

“But once you get to the older population, I wonder how many have computers or use them.”