Careers & Training | Techno skills are in demand

A recent survey found that today's Gen Zs will have 18 jobs across six industries, resulting in an upheaval of job changing, holding on to your best staff, and fluid workplace training.

It is a tsunami of change like we've never seen before, and it will affect almost all 20th-century businesses.

A whizz on social media, Cody Owens, navigated her way through Year 12 during the height of COVID and said without her phone and the digital space, her class would have been lost to one other.

"It was a very hard year for me. I didn't think I wanted to go on to uni, our class were not going to be our 'family' anymore, and I was at a loss as to just what I wanted to do," Cody said.

"Gran said to have a think about what I was good at and what I really enjoyed doing. Of course, it was social media - Facebook, Instagram, Etsy, the whole works," she said.

Through her contacts in Jonta and Lions, the local service clubs she volunteered with, Cody's grandmother introduced her to a few owners who were looking to get their products and services online.

"I am having the best time. I do social media and posts for an auction house, a dressmaker and a charity bookshop now," Cody said.

"Some days, I'm taking photos of the products of the best auction items, another day I'll be helping dress a doll in her prettiest clothes for a post, and then I could be sorting books for the charity if they are short-handed."

So the digital world of work and its impact on Generation Z is their new normal.

The economy has been transformed since they were born, and their 21st-century skills and digital talent are highly sought after, McCrindle Research's Mark McCrindle said in his The Future Report, GenZ: The future of school leavers today.

Finding what one is passionate about is a worthy endeavour, McCrindle said.

"While robotics and artificial intelligence will impact the future of work, the intrinsic human skills like creativity and the timeless ability to learn will be even more important in a more digitally integrated future," McCrindle said.

"Therefore, it is the skills of creative thinking, interacting with people, having empathy, and the ability to collaborate and innovate that will be in high demand. Tasks and sectors that involve these skills provide an exciting opportunity for school leavers today.

"The ability to think like a manager and operate like the owner of the business is also going to be prized.

"This is because the future of work will involve more of a decentralised working environment where people have to be in charge of their own area and show results.

"Independent and creative thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset is going to be key," he added.

Source: 'GenZ: The future of school leavers today.'

By Mark McCrindle and Ashley Fell, used with permission McCrindle Research.