This September, graduates who started higher education during lockdown are going to be entering the workforce for the first time, and emerging research is showing a stark difference between Gen Z who entered the workforce pre-pandemic and post-pandemic: from changing expectations of management to an increasing demand for hybrid, this incoming cohort is shaking up what organisations think they know about Gen Z graduates.
So what do today’s graduates want? How is “wave 2” of Gen Z different? In the build up to 2024’s graduate season, we’ve curated 20+ need-to-know emerging trends and statistics that will define the state of graduate development going into September 2024 and beyond.
1) Graduates today are less equipped for work than in previous years:
- Less than half (49%) of employers agree or strongly agree that their graduates are career-ready at point of hire, a 5% decrease since 2023 (2024)
- 50% of Gen Z say they have yet to catch up with the learning they missed during the pandemic (2023)
- 40% of Gen Z say the pandemic has left them unprepared for their careers (2023)
- Over 50% of employers believe Gen Z is not entering the workforce with the skills or knowledge needed to perform their roles (2024)
- Only half of Gen Z respondents to a global survey feel they’ve been trained well enough to be successful when they enter the workforce, and 59% of managers said the same about their Gen Z line reports (2023)
2) Graduate learning preferences are changing, and they’re embracing hybrid:
- More graduates are willing to attend in-person training events (2024)
- “Access to learning management systems” ranks highest in resources that Gen Z look for to help with career growth, suggesting a shift towards a preference for digital learning environments. (2024)
- Similarly, 43% of Gen Z respondents said they prefer a fully self-directed and independent approach to learning (2023)
- Half of Gen Z consider online experiences to be meaningful replacements for in-person interactions—compared with about one-third of the general population (2024)
3) Graduates are expecting more from their managers:
- Gen Z are eager for career guidance at work: 83% say a workplace mentor is crucial for their career (2023)
- Only 52% of employees report having a mentor in the workplace (2023)
- 47% of Gen Z rank “training from their manager” as their preferred method of workplace development, compared to only 32% of Gen X and Baby Boomers (2024)
- 4 in 10 organisations have implemented mentoring initiatives to better support their Gen Z (2024)
- Less than half of Gen Z employees say their manager helps them maintain a healthy workload, and 28% say they struggle with their mental health because of their direct manager. (2023)
- Gen Z consistently rank empathy as the second most important trait they look for in a manager, while leaders rank it a distant fifth on average. (2023)
4) Graduates are prioritising salary over progression:
- More than half (51%) of employers reported graduates and apprentices were leaving for better pay in 2024, compared to 40% in 2023 and 2022, and just over a quarter in 2021 and 2020. (2024)
- This trend was reflected in a shift to more applications for higher-paying sectors such as finance. (2024)
- When asked what employers could do to make their workplaces more inclusive, 23% of graduates cited equal and transparent salaries as their top suggestion (2024)
5) Organisations are struggling with graduate retention:
- In 2016, employers retained 83% of their graduates after three years, but in 2023/24 it had dropped to 70%. (2024)
- Employers reported that they found Black heritage hires and women particularly hard to retain. (2024)
- Offering work experience can help retention of graduates, with around a third of employers (32%) reporting that they retain former interns at a higher rate. (2024)
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