While Millennials and Gen Z are digital natives, they do not automatically have the skills needed for the future workforce.
At the same time, the current work force can learn from young people’s digital skills, particularly in things like social media marketing. Current professionals can also play a key role in helping engage with the future workforce and address skills gaps.
Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) is a Scottish initiative that promotes work-based learning pathways and employer engagement in education to help young people transition more easily from education to employment and address skills shortages. The Dundee and Angus DYW team have worked closely with the Dundee & Angus Chamber of Commerce since conception and share their office space with them. Through this close partnership they have built a relationship with Zudu, a young, successful web and app development company based in Dundee. Zudu sit on the DYW Dundee and Angus board and have seen the advantages of engaging with young people to emphasise the important skill sets for their industry and begin building talent pipelines, as well as gaining some great community exposure.
James Buchan and Rick Messitt, co-founders of Zudu, have worked with college students and senior secondary school pupils to develop both their digital and soft skills. Using their work for clients as tangible examples, James and Rick walked the students through the ideation and design process that they follow, illustrating the need for customer focus and flexibility in their work.
Having experienced professionals in the class engaging with the young people provided a real – life learning experience for the students. James and Rick gave an insight into the working world, discussing the importance of digital marketing and networking, the need to minimise risk and how to keep a client happy through communication and good customer service.
This type of engagement is invaluable for young people as it broadens their horizons, introduces them to the workplace and demonstrates how what they learn in school relates to a possible career, creating a better prepared future workforce. Businesses also benefit from this type of engagement. In the case of Zudu, they were able to use some of the students as a focus group to explore and improve one of their current apps. It was also an opportunity for one of the Zudu team members to develop their own public speaking skills.
To see lots more examples of this type of work, have a look at the case studies on DYW Dundee and Angus’ website and if you are interested in engaging with young people get in touch with your local DYW team who can help connect you to your future workforce.
