NEVER-ENDING bad news about layoffs and unemployment has been sobering for job seekers like Flora Schmidt of Mineola, N.Y. But Ms. Schmidt, who is 73, faces an additional hurdle in landing a part-time job: a lack of computer skills. “If you want to do anything in the workplace, you must know computers,” she said.

Kristin Fabos, executive director of SeniorNet, a nonprofit group, says that “more and more seniors are needing to return to work and finding they may not have the computer skills they need.” Her group has more than 130 volunteer-run computer learning centers in 33 states and offers more than 30 courses, in subjects ranging from computer basics and the Internet to word-processing programs and advanced classes like Excel for spreadsheets and PowerPoint.

“Demand is great, as technology is growing so fast,” said Slava Vero, co-coordinator of the SeniorNet center in Huntington, N.Y. She says the center has a waiting list.

Ms. Schmidt has completed several introductory and Internet courses at the Huntington center and is taking a class on Windows. She worked 30 years as a registered nurse and hopes her new computer skills will help land a nursing paralegal job. “I’m determined,” said Ms. Schmidt, who put two sons through college and says she needs a part-time job to make ends meet.

The percentage of older Americans who use computers is rising sharply but is still much lower than that of the general population. From March 2000 to August 2008, computer use among adults 65 and older almost doubled, to 38 percent, according to data from the Internet and American Life Project of the Pew Research Center. That compares with 74 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds and 86 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds.

Susannah Fox, an associate director for the project, says that technologically savvy baby boomers are swelling the percentage of the 65-plus age group, but that factors like income and education remain significant barriers to accessibility. And for some older adults, the use of computers just wasn’t relevant to their previous careers.

A number of organizations are working to close this digital divide. Most community colleges have technology programs geared to older job seekers. SeniorNet awards scholarships and recently established centers in underserved urban and Native American communities. Last year, it introduced online instruction. Some centers, like the Huntington SeniorNet center, plan to offer instruction to homebound older adults via Webcam and to donate recycled computers for students to use.

Last year, the AARP Foundation started WorkSearch, a program for low- to moderate-income older adults that provides skills assessment, training and related employment services. The program, offered free or at low cost, has 75 sites and has courses online.

Mary Kohl, 50, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, learned about WorkSearch when she filed for disaster unemployment benefits. She ran a day care business from her home, but when it was badly damaged from flooding this summer, she had to close it. She had some computer skills, but not enough to land a good job.

“I wasn’t proficient. Things have changed so much, I need to update my skills,” said Ms. Kohl, who is taking a series of eight classes over four months — including Windows XP basic and advanced topics like Quicken.

Emily Allen, the foundation’s assistant national director of work-force programs, says computer basics are essential even before landing a job. “More and more companies require filing an application online,” she said. Participants learn how to write a résumé on the computer and do online job searches, she said.

Mimi Witcher, 65, of Carrollton, Tex., says she knows how a lack of computer skills can marginalize people. In the late 1990s, she had been a stay-at-home mom for more than 20 years when she had to go back to work. Her husband had lost his job and the couple had college bills for two daughters. “I was 55 and completely computer-illiterate,” she said. For a few years she worked at a local Barnes & Noble and did temp work. She began taking computer classes at Richland College nearby.

Ms. Witcher did so well that about six months later she was asked to teach other older adults at the college. In addition to teaching at Richland, earlier this year she and her husband opened the Computer School for Seniors, www.cs4seniors.com, which offers more than 100 lesson plans online.

Molly Harrod, a research associate at the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University in Detroit, says feelings of insecurity over computers are common in older adults. Dr. Harrod conducted a yearlong study of a SeniorNet computer lab in the Midwest for her dissertation, “No Senior Left Behind: Creating Older Adult Computer Users.”

Students “often made a point of letting me know how successful they were,” she said. “They’d say things like ‘I have a Ph.D. from Harvard’, or that they owned successful businesses, or they would talk about how successful their adult children are.” Almost all of the students did it, Dr. Harrod added, as if they were saying “I’m not dumb.”

She also found that fear was pervasive — fear, for example, of not being able to learn or of looking stupid. “They felt they would be devalued or stigmatized,” she said, “that they would be left behind in society.”

LEARNING computer skills is empowering, Ms. Witcher said. And even the tech-savvy can upgrade.

Dean Hofer, 72, of Richardson, Tex., used computers as an electrical engineer at Texas Instruments before he retired, but found the Photoshop classes he took with Ms. Witcher to be important tools in enhancing his business Web site. His hand- and custom-made wooden pens, sold online and at craft shows, are “an important part of my income,” Mr. Hofer said.

Ms. Witcher says that tackling the computer can be challenging for people who feel uncomfortable in a high-tech world. “I know exactly how they feel,” she said. “Self-confidence is the biggest issue.”