The battle of the generations continues!

As reported by the Sirona Says blog today, 30% of SMEs have no confidence in the literacy and numeracy skills of Generation Y and so many source their valuable talent from other generations. Quoting Khalid Aziz, Chairman of the Aziz Corporation:

Those under the age of 40 have never experienced high unemployment and this is contributing to a tendency for younger employees to take work for granted or, worse, treat it as an extension of their social lives. This failure to take work seriously is not an issue amongst more mature employees.

This is very curious, highlighting a number of different related issues. First of all the need for individual companies to quantify what they require from their recruits, and to then identify those that possess the right skills.

Secondly there is the broader issue of ‘work-readiness’ and the fact that this goes beyond standard educational practices. Young people starting their careers also need practical skills to cope in today’s workplace such as a computer literacy, communication and negotiation skills, and the ability to multi-task (although these vary across industries).

Lastly though, it is interesting to note that this is being attributed as a ‘Gen-Y’ issue. I recently met with Emma Reynolds from e3 unlimited and Ask Gen-Y who believes that Generation Y isn’t confined to the under-27s but is in fact a state of mind about the workplace. The Gen-Y label is sometimes an easy excuse for problems like the one highlighted by this report but shouldn’t it instead just be about young people in general?

Emma will be speaking at the Exploding Myths conference which is in just over 2 weeks. There is still time to book but do it today!