iGen and the Tech Paradox: Why Digital Natives Struggle with Tech Skills
There is a paradox at the heart of our tech-driven world. The generation that grew up surrounded by screens, scrolling and social media may not have the technical skills employers need.
While undeniably comfortable consuming technology, younger generations often lack the ability to create, solve, or critically analyze it. Despite spending over eight hours a day online, only 18% are confident in advanced digital skills like coding or development. Even more worrying, only 44% believe they understand basic computer skills. For example, digital natives don’t understand how to find the best results on Google. This creates a serious problem, as individuals can hardly develop advanced skills without mastering the basics. But with Gen Z expected to make up 27% of the workforce by 2025, businesses can’t afford to let this skills gap grow.
Today’s businesses need innovators, builders and problem solvers who can use emerging technologies like AI and quantum to advance the world of work. In essence, we need to empower young people to understand the demands and benefits of these technologies as they quickly become our new colleagues.
As AI adoption continues to grow in the enterprise, we need employees who know how to get the most out of this technology. For example, by having a solid understanding of its capabilities and limitations, and knowing how to effectively manage systems, employees can get the most out of AI and its potential benefits.
Digital natives without digital know-how
What has brought this younger generation to a digital standstill?
Well, firstly, there’s a heavy reliance on technology for consumption. Currently, 72% of Gen Z uses the internet primarily for entertainment purposes. From playing video games and scrolling through social media to online shopping and streaming, their appetite for the online world is insatiable. This means that creative skill-based outlets like software design and development, coding, and data analysis have taken a back seat. As a result, tech skills that could have been developed remain undiscovered because young people spend little to no time exploring them.
Then there’s the rise of user-friendly apps that require minimal technical knowledge to use. With 83% of consumers saying a seamless user experience across all devices is essential, it’s clear that this user-friendly nature is bordering on non-negotiable. These apps have made our lives easier by providing built-in support, automated processes, simple interfaces, and customization. Yet, the opportunity to learn and build technical skills has been taken away.
Finally, today’s culture of instant gratification is supported by these readily available solutions and 24/7 helplines. This has led to a focus on instant answers and techniques, leading many to mistakenly believe that they understand a technology or topic better than they do. For example, purchasing a new phone requires a lengthy self-guided setup. Now, our phones automatically guide us through this process. This gives us the false sense that we understand how to optimally set up our phones. However, we have only seen autopilot at work. In reality, digital literacy often skims the surface. It fails to delve deeper into the realm of deep understanding and application. Taken one step further, a constant demand for immediacy can hinder an individual’s ability to develop healthy attention spans, patience, and focus, all of which are essential qualities for a successful workforce.
Learn, learn and then learn some more
It’s time to act. The key to turning this taste for technology into a true technical skill is to remove dependency and replace it with understanding. To do this, more focus needs to be placed on education. In line with this, there are two essential boxes that organizations need to tick to adequately equip our future workforce with the know-how to make businesses thrive.
We need to focus on revamping the education system from the ground up. This would mean going back to the beginning and redesigning the curriculum to clarify and teach basic computer skills. As a result, students would be taught things like coding fundamentals, data analysis, and cybersecurity awareness. All of which are essential for the modern business environment.
By introducing these topics and teaching softer skills like deductive thinking early in the education system, schools can help identify traces of engineering talent sooner rather than later. This, in turn, can spark an interest that leads someone to pursue an engineering career by studying at a higher education institution or vocational training college.
In addition to educational institutions such as schools and universities, companies need to take action. They need to partner with these institutions to provide real-world experience through internships and mentorship schemes. These types of initiatives not only help individuals gain new technical skills and knowledge, but also improve other essential workplace skills such as confidence, self-awareness, communication and teamwork.
Our new digital workforce
Digital natives are expected to know how to navigate the technological landscape, but do they really? Despite being born into the online age, younger generations are struggling to master the technical skills required to navigate the modern world of work. But this cannot continue or we will end up in economic gridlock. Younger generations are failing to develop these skills due to a heavy reliance on technology for consumption, increasingly user-friendly apps and a demand for instant gratification. This is where change is needed. We need to move away from the reliance on instant solutions and replace it with a deeper technical understanding. This can be achieved by adapting the academic curriculum to the demands of our changing business landscape and providing real-world experiences that give individuals the opportunity to practice.
We have highlighted the best online learning platform.
This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro’s Expert Insights channel, where we showcase the best and brightest minds in the technology sector today. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you’re interested in contributing, you can read more here:
