Call them power skills, durable skills or 21st century skills, but career development experts say it’s time to acknowledge that proficiency in empathy, critical thinking and collaboration are required to be successful in most jobs. And some younger employees aren’t cutting it.
They say a less-than-perfect storm of events has left Gen Z, generally considered young adults born after 1997, lacking in competencies that, in some cases, have been expected of workers but not explicitly named. Competencies like using a more formal way of talking or writing an email, dressing appropriately for the office and showing up for work on time are in short supply among some young employees, the career experts contend.
And employers are complaining. In a 2023 survey of managers, directors and executives, 38% said they avoid hiring recent graduates and prefer older workers. And 58% say recent graduates are unprepared for the workforce.
“There’s a lot of concern these days about student readiness for the workplace,” said Diane Gayeski, a professor of strategic communication at Ithaca College, in New York, who advised on the employer survey. “That’s nothing new. Older generations are always worried about the younger generation. But clearly the pandemic did have a significant impact on students who graduated from college in the last couple of years.”
Teaching durable skills
Experts are concerned that social media and COVID-19 shutdowns have harmed career skill development among Gen Z workers. Their first job might be on Zoom, for example. When will a young person learn how to maintain eye contact while making a presentation if they never set foot into an office?
“We hear about a lot of employees coming in who are not able to gather information and draw conclusions. They’re not ‘cueing’ into the work culture,” said Naomi Boyer, senior vice president of digital transformation at the nonprofit Education Design Lab. “Employers tell us that they can teach employees the technical skills they need, but the soft, durable skills need to be there when the employee comes in.”
But they aren’t, Boyer said. The Education Design Lab works directly with employers from different sectors of the labor market to learn what kinds of skills young workers need to thrive on the job. What they often hear from employers, she said, is that workers are not self-directed and don’t demonstrate resilience or take the initiative to learn about where they’re working.
They aren’t a “good fit,” she said.
Young workers will be more successful if they can show they have durable skills, Boyer said.
To this end, the Education Design Lab has designed microcredentials for nine core competencies: self-directed learning, empathy, oral communication, critical thinking, resilience, intercultural fluency, collaboration, creative problem-solving and initiative. Microcredential courses are online and take about 12 hours to complete. Over 800 higher ed institutions are offering the courses for free.
One of those colleges is Borough of Manhattan Community College. In addition to offering associate degrees to college students, BMCC serves prospective college students through its workforce development program.
Its pathway for high school seniors interested in careers as emergency medical technicians includes a microcredential course focused on three competencies — critical thinking, problem-solving and empathy. College officials identified the three competencies as essential for success handling ambiguous situations and responding to urgent needs.
“We were looking at various skills that align with [emergency medical services] scenarios,” said Donna McLean-Grant, director of programs and special initiatives for the college’s continuing education and workforce development office. “The fact that the content is standardized, measurable and validated allows us to issue a portable credential.”
Others in higher ed say the best way to equip students with interpersonal and professional skills is to offer meaningful work and learning experiences. Colleges and universities are too focused on teaching STEM-based skills and not focused enough on fostering robust debate about critical issues, said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities.
“We need to provide equitable access to high-impact practices,” Pasquerella said. These include undergraduate research, study abroad opportunities, first-year seminars and community-based service learning. These types of experiential learning foster oral communication, collaboration and speaking with people who have different perspectives, Pasquerella said.
The responsibility of employers
Gen Z students and workers admit they have a lot to learn, research shows. In a 2021 survey of young people aged 13-24, 46% said the pandemic is making it difficult for them to meet educational and career goals.
But this isn’t as unusual as it may seem, said economist Nicole Smith.
As chief economist with Georgetown University’s Center for Education and the Workforce, Smith said it’s perfectly understandable that young people don’t know all the rules of the workplace.
After all, they’re new to it.
“There’s always this notion from employers that a lot of young people are not graduating with enough experience, that they’re not coming out to be 100% efficient on the job,” she said. “I think that’s a little bit unfair to the young graduates.”
Smith said some responsibility lies on employers to teach the firm-specific skills they want employees to have. It’s also up to employers to meet new workers where they are and accept them for who they are.
Employers who say that young workers are often unprofessional may actually be making veiled observations about race and class, Smith said. Employees who wear tennis shoes to work, she said, simply may not have other shoes or know that different shoes are expected.
“There’s an office culture that you will understand once you’re exposed to certain classes of society,” she said. “The new set of workers looks different by race, color and ethnicity.”
