DiSTO Spain

The objective of this research is to understand if material resources in a given district of a big city can shape digital opportunities and, eventually, have an impact on the outcomes of online education. In this sense, Madrid is an interesting case of study because:

• High speed internet connection is available in all the districts of the city. However, not everybody can afford the costs of this kind of connection.
• The lock down imposed by government during the pandemic has obliged all Spanish students to stay home and switch to online education.
• In this context, it is reasonable to think that students whose homes had worst internet connection and technologies had several problems in attending online education.

The research

In order to achieve the objectives of this research, we:

• Use socio-economic indicators in order to create a map of the 21 districts of the city of Madrid.
• Then we will choose 4 of those districts (one for each typology, depending on households’ socio-economic resources) and make a survey to young people (from 15 to 20 years old) who live in those districts.

Methodology - surveys of neighbourhoods

The first phase involved classifying the twenty-one districts of the city based on their level of resources and heterogeneity.

 As a result, we were able to select four districts with extreme values in these dimensions:

• Privileged and homogeneous (Hortaleza)
• Privileged and non-homogeneous (Chamartín)
• Impoverished and non-homogeneous (Tetuán)
• Impoverished and homogeneous (Puente de Vallecas)

In the second phase, we surveyed young individuals between 15 and 25 years old. For this purpose, we created four samples, one for each of the previously selected districts, aiming to make them proportional to the segments generated by the variable "parents' education level". The goal was to replicate the households' material resources that characterise the four districts. In total, 1,066 people responded to the survey.

Findings

Descriptive analyses suggest that:

• There was a high presence of technology in respondents’ homes, regardless of the district they lived in.
• Respondents reported navigation patterns characterised by a high degree of autonomy, measured by the number of places from which internet connections were made. T indicates a high diffusion of technology and internet connectivity in different households.
• There was greater prevalence of 4G or mobile connections in homes in impoverished districts. This type of connection is considered lower in quality compared to fibre or ADSL, implies a poorer internet browsing experience and, consequently, a lower level of digital skills acquisition.
• Individuals living in districts with greater resources had higher levels of digital skills . Young people living in Chamartín or Hortaleza, acquired new computer and work-related skills through internet use to a greater extent than those living in Tetuán or Puente de Vallecas. .

 Logistic regression models were used to observe the impact of respondents’ material and digital resources on their engagement with online education.

 According to the results of these analyses, we found that:

• Parents' education level (a proxy for household resources) has a positive impact on mitigating problems related to online teaching.
• Internet connection quality reduces the likelihood of encountering problems during online classes.
• A higher number of connected devices in the household reduces the likelihood of perceiving internet connectivity as an obstacle to online class participation.
• The variety of locations from which the internet connection is made negatively relates to skills, supporting the idea that this variety should be seen not as providing autonomy but rather as a lack of good connection at home and the resulting need to go elsewhere to remedy it.
• Digital skills reduce the probability of having negative experiences related to online education.

 Funding

This research project is founded by Fundación Reina Sofia sobre Juventud y Adolescencia and supported by the department of Sociology and Communication, University of Salamanca.

Objectives

This project aimed to study the relationship between digital inequality and access to the labour market. Specifically, we examined the impact of online job search skills on the probability of obtaining employment using digital platforms.

Spain is an interesting case of study because:

• Its labor market is characterised by high unemployment rates, especially if compared with the rest of the EU (source: Eurostat)
• Digital channel for job seeking are becoming increasingly popular among job seekers in this country: from 13% to 24% in 10 years (source: Eurostat)

The research

In order to achieve the objectives of this research, we:

• Focus on the Spanish case study, analysing online platforms for professional social networks.
• Adopt a research strategy based on the simultaneous study of candidates and recruiters that operate through this platform.
• Combine methodologies that are mostly used in computer sciences, such as those based on Big Data analysis, and "classical" research tools, such as questionnaires and in-depth interviews.

Methodology - interviews and surveys

We conducted 86 semi-structured interviews with job seekers and recruiters from 2020 to 2021. For recruiters, we created a sample of 35 respondents consisting of two types: headhunters and mixed recruiters.

Type 1 recruiters focused on highly qualified workers, while type 2 recruiters focused on middle or low-qualified workers. Overall, type 1 recruiters actively searched for and contacted potential candidates, while type 2 recruiters engaged in a combination of active and passive activities, primarily reviewing applications instead of reaching out to potential candidates. For job seekers, we created a sample of 51 candidates divided into four types based on educational background and work experience.

 Additionally, we conducted two surveys with representative samples of Spanish jobseekers. Both surveys included sociodemographic variables, indicators of digital skills, employment search outcomes, and a specially constructed scale to measure online job search skills. One of the surveys included a burnout scale adapted to online job search processes.

Results

Noteworthy results of this project include:

• A new scale for measuring digital skills for online job search received a positive psychometric response.
  
• We identified two distinct typologies of job candidates: a) VIP candidates with highly sought-after profiles in the job market and b) "regular" candidates with common profiles. The former does not require advanced search skills to find employment, while the latter does.
• Individuals with fewer material and digital resources exhibit fewer job search capabilities and are more likely to abandon their search.
• Job seekers with better job search skills demonstrate an "intuition" about how algorithms sort applications on job search platforms.
• We observed the impact of job search skills on experiencing burnout during the job search process. Higher levels of skills were associated with a lower probability of experiencing burnout.

 Funding

This research project is funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (ref. RTI2018-098967-A-I00).