Two degrees, no job prospects: Why Gen Z Kiwis are worried about work

Saturday, 17 November 2018

They're educated, tech savvy and enthusiastic. But only half of 16 to 23-year-olds feel their education has prepared them well for the future.

Stacey Mulholland has just finished her final exams of a conjoint degree. She's tech savvy, young, bright and keen to work in marketing. But scrolling through online ads for entry level jobs is a daunting prospect for the 23-year-old.

Despite spending five years at university – and racking up thousands of dollars in student loan debt – she's worried she doesn't have the skills required by employers in her chosen field.

'I'm extremely nervous . . . I've been learning theories about consumer behaviour, but I haven't learned anything about how to do Google analytics or SEO, which is what you'd be expected to do these days,' Mulholland said.

Among her peers there was a feeling that 'you need a degree to get into the door' but also 'that joke that you need three years' experience to get your first job'.

**READ MORE:

At 23, Stacey Mulholland is part of Generation Z. Despite studying marketing at university she doesn't feel prepared for work in the industry.

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Her experience isn't isolated. The vast majority (92 per cent) of Kiwis and Aussies born between the mid-1990s and early 2000s – known as Generation Z or post-millennials – had concerns about starting work, according to new research for Dell Technologies.

Only 56 per cent of the 723 respondents rated their education as 'good' or 'excellent' at preparing them for the future.

Mulholland said computer programmes she'd been taught to use in her second and third year of university had already become obsolete.

'I am super concerned that a lot of the things they say 'you're going to have to learn this', [but] you're not really going to have to learn it because we're going to have computers that do it all for you.

'Recently in the marketing and management courses they've been switching over from assigning projects to doing computer-run simulations. It feels like they're just teaching us to game the system rather than actual skills.'

Massey University distinguished professor of sociology Paul Spoonley said there had been a 'disconnect' between employers' expectations and the secondary and tertiary curriculum for some time.

Professor Paul Spoonley says there's been a 'disconnect' between schools and universities and employers for some time.

'I sometimes think that employers want others to pay for work-specific skills rather than bear the costs themselves . . . [They] demand New Zealand work experience but then are unwilling to provide it.'

Careers, in the traditional sense, were 'dead', he said.

'The idea of working in one occupation for a single or a small number of employers has gone . . . The challenge for educators, trainers and employers is to provide the skills that help students to navigate a very different world of work.'

Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelan said New Zealand universities did not assume people would necessarily work in the field in which they'd studied and, instead, aimed to produce 'well-rounded' graduates.

'No matter what course or qualification they complete, students develop the skills and attributes of active learning, critical thinking, complex and creative problem-solving, interpersonal skills, time management and design thinking, among others.'

Work placements and internships could help ensure graduates had the skills employers wanted, he said.

Many degree programmes already included practical work and internships but universities lacked the funding and resources to 'mainstream' them.

Ministry of Education deputy secretary of early learning and student achievement Ellen MacGregor-Reid said improving transitions between education and work was a key focus for the ministry.

It was developing a school leavers' toolkit which would ensure school leavers had the skills, knowledge and capabilities they'd need as adults, including financial literacy, an understanding of civics, employment skills, she said.

A soon-to-be released study by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research would shed light on how well NCEA prepared young people for the future and how the system could be improved.