Most businesses today lack workers with digital skills and have high hopes for Gen Z. They believe these “digital natives”, once they start coming into the workplace in droves, will bring with the the necessary knowledge. But Gen Z’ers themselves are less confident in their skills than they might seem.
A recent report from CWJobs claims 77 percent of decision-makers (out of 500 surveyed) believe digital natives have the best digital abilities of any generation. At the same time, only a quarter (24 percent) of 16-24-year-olds (out of 542 surveyed) think their age is an advantage when applying for tech jobs. For the majority (56 percent), a career in the IT industry seems “complicated”.
CWJobs believes that this widespread lack of confidence could be coming from young people not being sure what a career in tech entails. Tech leaders believe most talent is needed in cloud, AI and coding. Meanwhile, more than half (55 percent) of young people would appreciate more advice from their teachers, as well as businesses.
This is easier said than done, though. At the moment, more than half of businesses (51 percent) don’t have the resources to offer Gen Z employees tech training, while a third (32 percent) of leaders wouldn’t even know how to train them.
