Gen Z is so lacking in soft skills after lockdown that Big 4 consultants are offering classes to help new hires fit in at work
The pandemic and its ensuing lockdowns forced Gen Z to miss out on vital experiences as they spent almost two years of college and/or high school shuttered at home. They were robbed of the closure of graduation ceremonies, the fun of college parties, and the hands-on experience of internships and first jobs. But they still had to go to work.
Even that was an unexpectedly big letdown as the same lockdowns wound up dramatically hurting their soft skills. The excitement of a first day at work was quickly tempered for recent graduates when, instead of going to a ritzy office bustling with employees, they found themselves stuck in their childhood bedroom talking to a bunch of floating heads on Zoom. Thanks to remote work, instead of navigating the time-honored tradition of making new friends at work, they probably hung out with their parents more than any young person eager to enter the early stages of adulthood would have liked. The Big Four consulting firms see an emerging market in training Gen Z with proper workplace etiquette.
Deloitte and PwC already offer specialized training for Gen Z workers, and now KPMG’s U.K. office has become the latest to add specialized training for pandemic-era graduates, The Telegraph reports. KPMG has a similar program in the U.S., as previously reported in the Wall Street Journal.
EY, the other member of the Big Four consulting firms, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about soft-skill training programs for recent graduates.
‘It’s hard to imagine’
KPMG U.K. CEO Jon Holt tells Fortune he’s deeply sympathetic: “If I think back to my own time at the University of Nottingham it’s hard to imagine how my experiences—including the friendships I formed—might have been affected by lockdowns,” Holt wrote in an emailed statement. “I admire their resilience, and it’s important that as a business we support them as they begin their training and careers with us. This includes offering additional courses to help them build soft skills.”
Source Link: https://fortune.com/2023/07/10/remote-work-gen-z-soft-skills-consulting-kpmg-specialized-training/ (https://fortune.com/2023/07/10/remote-work-gen-z-soft-skills-consulting-kpmg-specialized-training/)