What Generation Z Need Next

When we talk about generational divides we’re usually thinking of decades-long rifts, millennials and our baby-boomer parents, the boomers and their own parents, the so-called Greatest Generation or traditionalists. And while the next age group to get a formal name seems like they might as easily be folded into the millennial bunch, researchers are instead adamant that Generation Z is it’s own thing. To be fair, if millennials roughly constitute people born between 1980 and 2000, we’re already watching a new crop of youngsters come into adulthood.

In her new book, the obviously titled Generation Z, youth consultant Chloe Combi digs into the research to explore what makes Gen Z different from millennials and everyone else, and according to the author it’s been the quick-changing technological landscape over the last two decades that has sped up a divide. “Things have changed so much faster in recent years than they did in the past,” Combi told the Telegraph in a recent interview. The catalyst, and a marker for the origins of Generation Z in general, have been the spread of home internet and cell-phones. More so than a specific year, the generation born into these technologies are different because of them, and their ideas of what the workplace looks like are correspondingly unique. The much-paraded statistic that Gen Zers have an average attention span of around 8 seconds sounds dooming, but it might not be a bad thing in a high-paced digital environment.

So what can we expect from Generation Z? The oldest of the bunch are shipping out for college this summer and some of their peers will hit the workforce early. They also spent their adolescence with the country in economic turmoil, and writer Jeremy Finch highlights how their coming-of-professional-age story starts there. “I need a job that will come out with money, otherwise college will be a waste”, a 17-year old college hopeful named Marcus told Finch for a recent article. “I want to pick a career that is stable,” he added. Marcus harps on an important point: college has become too expensive for most families to take an education-first, career-second approach. With high unemployment and low job security consistent through much of their lives, Gen Zers are often looking for guarantees, which will almost certainly mean a surge in other types of education, namely, vocational training. “We’re now calling it competency-based education, which focuses on the mastery of work-related skills rather than command of a particular academic discipline,” Erica Orange, a vice president at a career agency told Time in April. The technological competency of Gen Zers will bleed into those trades jobs, from high-tech manufacturing to industries like mining and and transportation. The Times also reports that the “unemployment rate for high-school graduates is falling faster than for college graduates,” which speaks to the rise in demand for vocational graduates and provides a compass for the next few high-school graduating classes.

Perhaps more obviously than vocational training, Gen Zers will also increasingly be turning to the Internet for an education, which means a wider talent pool has access to once-closed doors. The shift towards online learning could also potentially undermine the prestige of four-year colleges themselves, particularly in prove-yourself industries like programming or even chemistry: if you can do the work, the degree doesn’t matter so much.

In both cases, surges in either vocational and online learning have the potential to upend currently held norms, which is kind of exactly what elevating generations are supposed to do be doing. As Combi says, Generation Z “has an instinctive understanding of technology, which the brightest among them is applying to the big issues of our times: healthcare, energy, education. These kids will create new jobs and industry.” They’ve just got to get out of school first.