As government tech seeks to deliver services in a post-pandemic world, it is trying to overcome the technology skills gap via its Digital Corps program.
To close out the summer, the Biden Administration announced the launch of Digital Corps, a two-year fellowship meant to attract early-career developers to help with high-impact efforts across federal government applications. The Corps is a collaboration between the General Services Administration, the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Tapping into a talent market
The technology field has long known how important it is to pull in more young people into the government tech field. The Digital Corps will offer opportunities for technologists with skillsets in data science, software engineering, cybersecurity, and other critical areas.
Thirty fellows are expected to start this fall in more than five agencies across the government, including GSA, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Veterans Affairs, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
It will complement existing fellowships designed to bring diversity to the government workforce and work alongside alternative training pathways such as boot camps, apprenticeships, and certificate programs.
Reenergizing the workforce with a digital corps
The technology skills gap is a known problem, and government tech is necessary to provide services in a post-pandemic world. Covid highlighted the need for government to update websites, reinvent data analysis, and offer best practices guidance for the private sector’s technology innovations.
The Digital Corps is a new step in achieving those goals and will hopefully attract new talent into the govtech space. Once fellowship recipients complete their two-year term, they’ll have the experience to make a difference either in govtech or by joining the private research and development world. In the US race to maintain global leadership in technology, it’s another step towards that vision.
