One thing both employers and workers can agree on: entry-level workers are not fired for the job.
Fewer than half of workers (48%) and only 12% of mid-level executives believe today’s entry-level workers are adequately prepared for the workforce, according to a new report from the technology education provider General Assembly. are
The biggest factors driving this lack of confidence? Polling managers find that new workforce entrants lack the requisite soft skills — such as communication, collaboration and adaptability — necessary to thrive on the job.
“The pipeline of entry-level employees is broken,” General Assembly Chief Business Officer Jordan Hathaway wrote in a statement. “Companies must rethink how they source, train and onboard employees.”
For employers determined to tackle the issue, there is no shortage of evidence-based methods to increase workforce readiness, Hathaway added. “Technology apprenticeships and skills training programs, for example, provide employees with experience that mimics a real work environment, allowing them to develop technical skills as well as communication and collaboration skills. “
For the report, General Assembly surveyed 1,180 workers across the US and UK, as well as 393 VPs or director-level managers.
Nearly 1 in 4 of these executives said they would not hire today’s entry-level employees. About 23% of all employees, at all levels, said the same — including 1 in 3 baby boomers.
Actual value missing
Even entry-level workers can tell they’re missing something important.
Two in five (40%) of Gen Z respondents – many of whom are new hires – say a lack of soft skills is a major obstacle to their career advancement. According to both executives and workers, at the top of the list are technical skills—and coming to work with the right attitude.
Again, this is not entirely the fault of young workers. Many spent their college years in pandemic lockdowns, plagued by canceled internships (or completely remote roles), and missed opportunities for networking and in-person professional mentoring.
One in three executives—and a similar share of employees—agreed that companies don’t provide adequate training for new hires, effectively setting them up for failure or at least underperformance. .
Among companies that actually budget for training stipends or funds, about half of employees said they “sometimes, rarely or never” use them. This is possibly due to a lack of motivation or time – or perhaps even the realization that they are not the problem.
Interestingly, US and UK employees differ somewhat on this issue. UK employees were more than twice as likely to believe that the government bears some responsibility for job preparation than US workers. UK bosses were seven times more likely than US bosses to say the same.
Despite AI, soft skills still reign supreme.
The General Assembly report shows that as the future becomes increasingly digitized, human interaction is vital. This has been echoed by other recent reports.
A Harris poll was conducted exclusively for good luck It found in January that 82% of managers said the soft skills of their new Gen Z hires require more guidance, time and training. They also think Gen Zers often have unrealistic expectations of the workplace — such as faster promotion timelines, plenty of room for flexibility, or a consistent work-life balance — and are soft on technical skills. Training skills is difficult.
A September 2024 study by workplace education platform Pearson found that communication — the most in-demand soft skill — was mentioned in 110 million job listings, while data analysis — an AI skill — appeared in only 9 million.
Also, in a recent Deloitte study, workers ranked teamwork as their number one valued skill, followed by communication and leadership. Only fourth did a more technical skill – coding – make the list, followed by data analysis.
Many Fortune 500 companies are already heeding that call. Microsoft, for one, has partnered with virtual education platform Coursera to offer workers courses and certificates in hard (data analysis) and soft (communication) skills alike. Accenture CEO Julie Sweet has made continuous learning a priority since her first day on the job, and this year her company bought Udacity, an AI learning platform similar to Coursera, to further that mission. And upskilling can be prioritized.
Companies that put too much stock in technical training at the expense of “human skills such as divergent thinking, emotional agility, flexibility” can stifle innovation and require employees to lead teams, adapt to market opportunities, and more. , and can leave less equipped to function fully. The potential of technology,” Anthony Stephen, Deloitte’s chief learning officer, wrote.
The General Assembly also said the same.
“When we see that a trend affects so many people, we have to take a step back and consider that the system needs to change,” Alumni Engagement and Employer Contributions to the General Assembly Dari director Lupe Colangelo wrote in the report. “People clearly need more support to enter and succeed in the workforce. We cannot expect individual employees to close today’s skills gap on their own.
