Gen Z workers have come of age during the pandemic — and bosses say it shows. Employers frequently accuse their younger recruits of lacking basic general skills and I have no idea how interact with their colleagues. Today, schools are stepping in to bridge this gap.
Take All Saints Catholic College in London. Its principal is testing a 12-hour school day between breakfast and dinner, offering public speaking classes and banning smartphones, all in an effort to prepare students for adult life.
Director Andrew O’Neill said The telegraph he launched the pilot program after realizing that Generation Z students – the youngest of whom are 11 – had become “house birds” who were “not as good at holding a conversation or making eye contact” after the pandemic.
“We realized we had to break away from that and change something,” O’Neill said, adding that he had never seen this level of “apathy” in the 20 years he worked with adolescents .
Due to lockdowns and the rise of smartphones, today’s teenagers have become accustomed to going home and scrolling instead of interacting with others – and this is increasingly isolating them, O’Neill believes.
He added: “They don’t want to come, they want to go home, they want to be alone, they want to be on their device, to isolate themselves from other people, and it’s a total tragedy for our youth. »
In addition to being addicted to their phones, the school said Fortune that other problems identified before starting the program include being distracted, disenfranchised and alienated.
The solution? Extend class hours.
In 2016, Toussaint banned its 900 students, aged 11 to 16, from carrying a phone. However, the 120 students participating in the extended school day will benefit from a broader telephone detox when they are on site from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursdays.
Instead of scrolling through TikTok or BeReal, those extra hours will be filled with activities like cooking classes, public speaking classes, basketball practices, and extra time to complete homework, before enjoying an evening meal with classmates where they sit and talk without a screen. preview.
O’Neill said Fortune that the school will measure the success of the program using attendance levels, behavior records and homework completion as well as anecdotal evidence from parents, students and teachers.
Gen Z workers lack ‘core skills’
All Saints Catholic College is not the first school to step in and provide extra support for socially awkward Gen Zers.
Michigan State University prepares its graduates for the job market by providing lessons on how to manage a networking conversation, including how to look for signs that the other party is getting bored and is time to move on. THE Wall Street Journal.
The university also requires companies to give explicit guidelines on the first day of employment, including what to wear and where to eat lunch.
University of Miami I even organized a dinner with senior leaders to teach proper mealtime etiquette, such as how to initiate conversation on neutral topics.
Employers also provide new graduates with additional training to bring them up to speed. Take for example the big four global consultancies: Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and EY all offer junior recruitment. soft skills trainingincluding lessons on how to speak up in meetings.
“It is completely understandable that students who missed face-to-face activities during COVID are now stronger in some areas, like independent work, and less confident in others, like group presentations “, Ian Elliott, personnel manager. manager at PwC UK, said in sympathy towards young workers.
