Most HR professionals know how further education works for long-serving employees. What is often overlooked in these measures are the young professionals! Find out now what you should pay special attention to with Generation Y or Z and how to win the young generation for further education:
Our working world is in constant flux, which is also shaped by the new, younger generation of employees. Technology affinity, different priorities, and a completely new way of learning are particularly influential. Personnel and training managers feel this change quite clearly in the feedback on their training measures. Therefore, it is all the more important to take into account the special work and learning preferences of young people.
What makes further education so special for young professionals?
Before we can answer this question, we should talk about what distinguishes the young generation from older employees:
For example, when we talk about generations Y and Z, they are mostly born between 1990 and 2000 and thus grew up with the Internet and digital media. As a result, they often find it much easier to work with computers and are well-versed in handling digital media. For further education, this means that especially digital learning offerings are convincing.
After all, the younger generation is usually significantly more tech-savvy and is no longer accustomed to working without the Internet and computers. Additionally, younger people are used to short, snappy content due to social media and co. This is particularly evident when you look at the most used social media platforms like TikTok: Short videos are convincing!
Reading Tip: If you want to know what you can learn from TikTok, I recommend this article: 5 Things You Can Learn from TikTok
However, young employees differ not only in their handling of technology: Compared to most older employees, they lead a different lifestyle, have different priorities, and pursue different goals. The language is also changing and becoming more informal. Many young people find their private lives significantly more important, and the work-life balance is increasingly essential. The communication is becoming more relaxed, even in the workplace. Therefore, you should also design further education for young employees to be more open and linguistically looser or more personal.
Reading Tip: How you should design the onboarding of young people has already been explained by us using the example of trainees: Trainees are coming! This makes onboarding simple & time-saving
For further education, this means: It is no longer understood as a uniform mandatory event but must fit the individual needs and demands. A survey by the Haufe Academy has shown, for example, that young people are significantly more motivated to invest in their knowledge even outside of working hours if the measure provides a personal benefit. Moreover, there seems to be a certain basic motivation among young employees that you should definitely leverage.
Survey by the Haufe Academy shows: Young employees are often motivated to continue their professional education! // Source: Haufe, Representation: blink.it
Further education for Generation Y and Z: Creating incentives
Young employees who are at the beginning of their careers frequently come directly from university or training – learning is still quite familiar to them. And that’s exactly what you should leverage. You will probably encounter the statement “Oh, I thought this learning business would finally be over!” repeatedly, but with the right arguments, your measures will convince.
And that’s why you should definitely create incentives and clearly communicate what added value your further education brings to them as individuals. Then a suitable training offering can even become a motivator!
Practical Example: Young Talents at SNIPES Online Campus
What this can look like is impressively demonstrated by the streetwear and sneaker retail chain SNIPES: At the predominantly young workforce, SNIPES relies on a digital onboarding and training strategy – tailored to the target group. The following things play a central and promising role at SNIPES:
The basis: a suitable learning platform where all content is collected.
Learning content tailored to the target group in video format instead of long texts.
Voluntary further education opportunities that allow for additional benefits.
If you want to learn more about this, feel free to check out this blog post by my colleague Laura: Interview with SNIPES: “How the learning platform becomes a fun platform!”
Suitable further education concepts for the young generation
The demands for further education are changing not only in content but also in their design. Short content, preferably in video format, is particularly promising – this explains the ever-increasing success of microlearning in recent years.
Note: According to the current mmb Trend Monitor 2021/22, microlearning remains the most significant form of learning in companies!
The concept is simple: short, self-contained learning units that can be worked on independently. Preferably in video format, so they can be consumed within minutes. This lowers the threshold and increases the feeling of success after completing a learning content. With a short quiz to assess one’s own learning status, you as a training manager can provide indirect feedback, which additionally motivates. With different learning units, you also bring more variety and design further education entirely in the spirit of edutainment.
All of this connects the expectations for further education among young employees and career starters:
Flexibility and spontaneity during course processing
clearly communicated goals and recognizable added values
direct feedback and recognition from you as the training manager
Build training experiences instead of mere factual teaching
All these aspects can be optimally connected with the microlearning method. Do you want to create your own microlearnings and are looking for inspiration? Then download our free microlearning guide and get started with target group-oriented further education for your young employees!
Free guide
The Ultimate Microlearning Guide for Online Courses
Do you want to get started with microlearning? Then take our free guide and develop your own online course step by step in the microlearning style. With many examples and helpful expert tips!
To the free microlearning guide
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