Over half of ‘Generation Z’ feel unprepared for the future, says Adobe study

Emma Finamore
30 Jan 2017

Just 52% of students have a dream job in mind, while seven in 10 want to see an increased focus on creativity in the classroom.

Placeholder — Gen Z students are nervous when they think about their future careers and over half (51%) feel unprepared.

Generation Z students are nervous when they think about their future careers and over half (51%) feel unprepared, new research has found.

It’s no wonder they feel this way: the same study shows that 96% of teachers believe Gen Z will work in careers that haven’t even been imagined yet.

Despite there being no official definition, the Gen Z cohort is considered by demographers and researchers to apply to those with birth from the mid-1990s to early 2000s: these are the young people coming of age right now.

The new research from Adobe – ‘Gen Z in the Classroom: Creating the Future’ – found that just 52% of young people in the UK between the ages of 11 and 17 have a dream job in mind, with a staggering 70% of students and 75% of Gen Z teachers expressing a mutual desire to see an increased focus on driving more creativity in the classroom.

The overwhelming majority – 77% of students and 87% of teachers – see creativity as essential to students’ future careers, and most think understanding technology is key to being prepared when they start their careers.

Gen Z students are nervous when they think about their future careers and over half (51%) feel unprepared. And it’s no wonder they feel this way – 96% of teachers believe Gen Z will work in careers that haven’t even been imagined yet.

Despite this, Gen Z students are nervous when they think about their future careers and over half (51%) feel unprepared. And it’s no wonder they feel this way – 96% of teachers believe Gen Z will work in careers that haven’t even been imagined yet.

To combat this, nearly two-thirds of teachers agree that more should be done to evolve the current teaching curriculum, with the majority believing the best method for learning and teaching is through a ‘doing or creating’ approach, involving practical, hands-on learning rather than just theoretical.

Adobe thinks it can help with this approach. “Gen Z students have all grown up in a tech-enabled and information-driven world,” said Tacy Trowbridge, Education Programs at Adobe. “Gen Z and their teachers agree that they learn best through doing and creating, and that the curriculum needs to evolve to let students explore their creative ideas and to prepare them for a rapidly changing world.”

“Adobe has always been committed to enabling creativity in the classroom, and programs such as Creative Cloud for Education bring the best in class creativity tools to schools. I am particularly thrilled to see how the introduction of Adobe Spark has helped even the youngest students tell stories with impact,” said Mala Sharma, VP & GM Creative Cloud Product, Marketing and Community.

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