Are our education priorities letting down Generation Z?

Rising unemployment – recent events and recessions

A few days ago, I came across an informative article on how Generation Z (Gen Z) is hard hit by the financial fallout of COVID. Gen Z are folks born after 1997, the eldest members of this group are now graduating into the labour market devastated by the global pandemic.

This article highlighted an interesting perspective, hitherto underreported, with most of the news focus being the health impact of COVID, especially its brutality with the elderly and the infirm. This focus on illness and death may perhaps be due to our focus on the seen, and the sight of corpses and coffins in and around hospitals do make for sobering scenes.

The article highlighted that Gen Z workers (the oldest of whom are probably aged 23 years) are more likely to be working in industries (leisure, travel and tourism, hospitality, retail, etc) ravaged by the Corona Virus.  As these sectors provide large pools of entry level jobs to younger school leaving youth, including students who take up part time jobs to fund their education, the unemployment rate amongst the 18-24 years old increased to a staggering 27% in the UK and an estimated 32% among teenagers in the US. The layoffs and fewer job opportunities are hitting this generation very hard financially as well as their prospects of future employment opportunities. A report by the Resolution Foundation states that “the unique nature of the current crises has damaged the first rung of the employment ladder for a substantial portion of the education leavers”. The report also suggests that “While the realities of being unemployed are damaging in real time… the experience can also scar a person’s employment and pay for years to come”, meaning that they are less likely to be employed in 3 years time as compared to a non recession times. The magnitude of the problem is more sever for those with lower levels of education / skills.  

Continuing clouds on employability – impact of automation technology, AI and non aligned education systems

The impact of recessionary events on youth employment and employability is perhaps small component of a larger narrative. In years to come, employment and employability of youth will continue to be an issue given the technological advances in automation technology. This aspect relates to the relevance of our current education model in the context of an economic model driven technological growth. 

Gen Z, also known as digital natives, are more tech savvy than other generation before them. However despite their savviness and the inherent advantages of being born in a technology driven era, do they have the broad based skills to benefit from the pace of technological advancement and digitisation?

The answer is an emphatic NO!

While looking at employment trends and skills being developed at high school, it is obvious that technological progress is leaving behind even the digital natives, the very group of youngsters best suited to exploit this growth and with each passing year, the problem becomes more acute. 

This can perhaps be attributed to:

• After graduating from high school, a majority of the students do not have the skillset to contribute effectively in a rapidly evolving workplace, slowly being dominated by automation and artificial intelligence. The lack of adequate skill is in large part due to inadequate integration of technology into curricular and learning outcomes. This perhaps is a fallout of digital immigrants being incharge of education policies and practices, who, in part, do not appreciate the pervasiveness of digitisation in the lives of future generations.
• Entry level jobs that school leavers currently take up (first rug or stepping stone jobs) in industries such as leisure, travel and tourism, hospitality, retail are most susceptible to automation driven by AI. These jobs are algorithmic in nature, meaning that it is easy for robots to be programmed to perform them. Automation in an industry sector adversely impacts the employment intensity of that sector, translating to fewer jobs. Fewer jobs mean many school leavers would not gain experience in the labour markets and have less money to fund higher education. 

In current context, the inability of youth to get meaningful jobs will potentially lead to higher levels of poverty as compared to the order generation (who, ironically, with the assistance of technology would remain in the labour force longer). If this were to happen, Gen Z would probably have lesser opportunities and be poorer than their parents, which would indeed be a tragedy.

To address this issue, some questions that need to be answered with some urgency are:

• What are the plans of policy makers, across the globe, to ensure the affluence of our future generations? 
• Are any conversations happening to understand the impact of automation on future employment opportunities of youth? 
• Do these conversations include a systematic solution for the needs of masses and not just the elite who can pay to stay ahead?
• Based on the progress of digital technology over the next 20 years, what should be the definition of digital literacy that we should adopt.
• What changes should we make to all levels of schooling to achieve our digital literacy objectives.
• What skills should K-12 education focus on? 
• What should be the focus of academics in an era where completion for jobs is not just with other people but with AI driven bots?

It would be interesting to see who the change makers and drivers of relevant conversations would be – would it be governments, educators or education technology companies? My sense is that the key players driving this change would be ed-tech driven by a desire to be socially responsible, backed by the consumers themselves. It is important that sustainable solutions are found, targeted at the grassroots level and encompass all youth irrespective of their social and economic background. There is enough incentive to work for this as the market size is large, as 30% of the world population is below the age of 18 and Gen Z and Gen Alfa will continue with their journey of education and skill development for many years to come.