Most HR professionals know how continuing education works for long-term employees. However, young professionals often get forgotten in these measures! Find out now what you should particularly pay attention to when dealing with Generation Y or Z and how you can engage the younger generation in continuing education:

Our world of work is continuously changing, driven by the new, young generation of employees. Technical affinity, different priorities, and an entirely new way of learning are particularly influential. HR and training managers feel this change especially clearly in the feedback regarding their training measures. Therefore, it is even more important to consider the specific work and learning preferences of young people.

What makes continuing education for young professionals so special?

Before we can answer this question, we should discuss what distinguishes the young generation from older employees:

For example, when we talk about generations Y and Z, they were typically born between 1990 and 2000 and have therefore grown up with the Internet and digital media. As a result, they find it significantly easier to work with computers and are well-practiced in using digital media. For further training, this means that particularly digital learning offerings are convincing.

Ultimately, the younger generation is generally much more technically savvy and is no longer accustomed to working without the Internet and computers. In addition, younger people are used to short, punchy content due to social media and the like. This is particularly evident when you look at popular 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 are not only different in their approach to 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. For many young people, their private life is much more important, and work-life balance is increasingly crucial. The communication becomes more relaxed, including in the workplace. Therefore, you should also make continuing education for young employees more open and linguistically more relaxed or personal.

Reading tip: We have already explained how you should design the onboarding of young people using the example of apprentices: The apprentices are coming! This makes onboarding easy and time-saving.

For continuing education, this means: It is understood less as a uniform mandatory event but must fit the individual needs and requirements. 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, when the measure provides personal added value. Moreover, there seems to be a certain basic motivation present in young employees that you should definitely make use of.

Survey by the Haufe Academy shows: Young employees are often motivated to continue their professional education! // Source: Haufe, Representation: blink.it

Continuing Education for Generation Y and Z: Creating Incentives

Young employees who are at the beginning of their careers often come directly from university or vocational training – learning is still very familiar to them. And you should leverage that. You will likely often encounter the statement “Oh, I thought the studying was finally over!,” but with the right arguments, your measures will convince.

And that’s precisely why you should definitely create incentives and clearly communicate what added value your continuing education brings to them as individuals. Then, a suitable training offering can even become a motivator!

Practical Example: Young Talents in the SNIPES Online Campus

What this can look like is impressively shown by the streetwear and sneaker retail chain SNIPES: With predominantly young employees, SNIPES relies on a digital onboarding and training strategy – tailored to the target group. The following elements play a central and promising role at SNIPES:

• The foundation: a suitable learning platform that collects all content.

• Learning content tailored to the target group in video form instead of long texts.

• Voluntary training opportunities that provide 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 Continuing Education Concepts for the Young Generation

The demands for continuing education are changing not only in terms of content but also in their design. Short content, preferably in video format, is particularly promising – this explains the increasing success of microlearnings in recent years.

Note: According to the current mmb-Trendmonitor 2021/22, microlearning remains the most important form of learning in companies!

The concept is simple: short, self-contained learning units that can be worked on independently. Ideally in video form so that they can be consumed within a few minutes. This lowers the barrier to entry and makes the sense of achievement after completing a learning content much greater. With a short quiz to check one’s own learning progress, you as a training manager can indirectly provide feedback, which additionally motivates. With diverse learning units, you can also provide more variety and design continuing education in the spirit of edutainment.

All of this connects the demands for continuing education among young employees and career starters:

• Flexibility and spontaneity during course completion

• clearly communicated goals and recognizable added values

• direct feedback and recognition from you as the training manager

• building continuing education as learning experiences instead of mere fact transfer

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 start directly with targeted continuing education for your young employees!