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The ultimate goal of The Institute is to educate individuals for employable occupations or upgrades into new positions, thus supplying the community with tax-paying citizens.

Bits and Bytes in the News

“Don’t Boot Opportunity, Be Computer Savvy”

When it opened its doors 20 years ago, passers-by thought Bits and Bytes Training Institute was a place you took your cantankerous hoarse or dog for obedience instruction, owner Linda Calmese said.
“I guess it was the name that confused people,” Calmese said. “Please don’t realize that those are computer terms.”

Back in 1985, computers were a novelty in the business world, Calmese said. People hadn’t discovered how indispensable they would be one day.

“Back then memory typewriters were really big and people looked at computers and said, I’m never going to use this,” Calmese said. “The resistance was amazing, especially amongst older people. But no matter how good you are at the old skills, there is no place for you in the new labor market.”

Now, even those early computers are relics of a bygone age, Calmese said. Many are stacked in a back room at the company’s 7705 W. Main St. office because they failed to fetch even a few bucks at a parking lot sale. But, even as people have grown more computer savvy, there is still much to learn.

Calmese said spreadsheets that help manage accounts and inventory are an example of modern pram grams people need to know how to work.

“It’s even tough to get a job in a warehouse these days if you can’t use a computer,” Calmese said, “They’re everywhere.”

Arlene Wilson, owner of A. Wilson and Associates, a graphic design company based in Millstadt, said her business dealings get tripped up on a weekly if not daily basis because people aren’t up to snuff on computing.

“We’ll produce something for a client and e-mail it to then for proofing,” Wilson said. “If they don’t know how to open it up, then you have to drive to them and personally take them a copy.”

Wilson said she does jobs for people from Mascoutah all the way over to St. Charles, Mo and with 15-20 jobs a week, the time and miles could really ass up.
“With the price of gas these days, it gets quite expensive,” Wilson said.
Bits and Bytes receives state grant money to fund programs to teach people who have lost their jobs and other needy people how to use computers so they have a chance to find a good job. But the company also offers computer summer camps for children as young as 6 and for adults 85 and beyond. And it has pay as you go programs for people who just want to learn how to do basic things like send e-mails and navigate the Internet.

“Those classes cost about $10 an hour and they last 10 to 20 hours, so they’re $200 or less,” Calmese said.