2. Paula Peres & Anabela Mesquita
Paula Peres has an aggregation in the doctoral area of Education: Online Education and eLearning, a
post-PhD and a PhD in Education technologies area. Master in computer science and graduate in Math
Computer. She has a Post-graduation in adult education. She is currently teaching on the Information
System department in the School of Accounting and Administration of Porto She is the coordinator of the
unit of eLearning and Pedagogical Innovation of P.PORTO (EIPP/P.PORTO).
Anabela Mesquita is a Professor at the Porto Accounting and Business School / Polytechnic of Porto since
1990. Vice Dean between 2007 - 2018. President of the SPACE European network. Member of the Algoritmi
Research Centre (Minho University) and the former Director of CICE (Research Centre for Communication
and Education).
Unit of eLearning and Pedagogical Innovation of P.PORTO
http://e-ipp.ipp.pt/
4. • Youngsters have a different profile from those
of older generations
• This may cause some challenges to both:
potential employee and employer
• "iGEN - Interwork Between Gen Z and
Employers"
• Close the gap between employers and youth
• Experiences and needs of Gen Z and employers
using quantitative and qualitative
____
• Results obtained from desk research, focus
group, interviews and questionnaires (Gen Z)
• Characteristics of the Gen Z that could help to
support the process of providing professional
training
AGENDA
http://igenproject.eu/project/
Is e/b-learning suitable
for generating z?
5. • Implemented in the framework of Erasmus+ VET program (2016 – 2019)
• 7 partners: Czech Republic (CULS), Hungary (Trebag), Cyprus
(Dekaplus Business Services), UK (Exponential Training &
Assessment), Poland (Inneo), Portugal (Polytechnic of Porto) and Spain
(Media Creativa 2010)
• Companies face several challenges due to changes in labour market
trends
• Three different generations (baby boomers, X and Y) present in the labour market
augmented with the new generation, so called Gen Z (aged between 16-21)
Project “iGEN – Interwork Between Gen Z and Employers”
http://igenproject.eu/
6. • Target groups are employers and members of Gen Z
• To help them to be more prepared for cooperation
• The project will produce several outputs, such as:
• Handbook providing methods, tools and best practices for Gen Z and SMEs to create an
attractive, supporting and retaining working environment
• Mentor and Mentee training, for SMEs and Gen Z based on the company and Gen Z
survey and also on the research process
• In this paper we only focus on the output - the characterization of Gen Z and
training course (mentees, Gen z).
Project “iGEN – Interwork Between Gen Z and Employers”
http://igenproject.eu/
7. MULTI-GENERATIONAL WORKPLACE
☼Baby Boomers: Born 1946 to 1960 (aged 58-70s)
☼Generation X: Born 1961 to 1980 (aged 38-57)
☼Millennials or Gen Y: Born 1981 to 1995 (aged 23-37)
☼Gen Z, iGen, or Centennials: Born 1996 and later (younger than 23)
What is your generation?
8. We can not offer the same kind of education
Prepared for the use of technologies
We need to adapt
Create frustration
9. Generation Z
A generation is defined as a “group of people born in the same general
timeframe, who share some life experience”
Research indicates that different generations exhibit different value
priorities
Generation Z will present huge challenges to leaders, managers,
supervisors, HR leaders, and educators in every sector of the workforce.
They are used with social networking
Tends to be less motivated by money than Generation Y
Tends to be impatient, instant minded, high dependency on the
technology, individualistic, self-directed, demanding, …
10. Generation Z
Considering the results from general previous studies, iGen project
intends to analyse and attest these issues in the partners’ countries
and determine trends that could support the future training design
11. In order to fully understand the Generation Z, we adopted a 4-step exercise
implemented from October 2016 to March 2017:
1. Desk research
2. Design of the tools (questionnaires, guides for interview and focus
group) and translations of all the research tool
3. Interviews, questionnaires and focus group (field research)
4. Analyze the results
Research Design
12. The questionnaire was developed taking into consideration the results of the
desk research and the aims of the project
The questionnaire was available online
The dissemination of the questionnaire was made using several solutions:
Facebook post with a link to the questionnaire;
Post in Gen Z groups;
Message sent to individual persons asking them to answer the questionnaire and inviting
friends to do the same, among other solutions.
…
Questionnaire
13. The questionnaire consisted of 18 questions
Questions 1 to 5 helped to characterize the sample
The remaining questions were about their experience at workplace,
communication, the use of technology, relationship with the boss / leader,
how to look for a job, how well prepared the youngster was for the
workplace, the preferred training and factors to make them loyal to the
workplace
Questionnaire
14. The script used for the focus group and interviews corresponded to the
questionnaire
This means that the questions were similar, and our aim was to go deeper
into the reasons underneath each answer
Script for the
Focus group and Interviews
16. The majority of the respondents were born in 1998
As for the gender, the majority is female
The majority of the respondents attended the 12th grade
Results Questionnaire
Distribution of respondents by partner country
17. The majority (495 out of 596) have professional experience such as
occasional job, part time job and professional internship
Areas: Commerce and information technology…
Results Questionnaire
Areas of work of the respondents
18. Facebook and Instagram are the more popular social media among
respondents.
In Spain, the majority of the respondents prefer to use Whatsapp to
communicate. In all the other countries, the preference goes to Facebook
Messenger.
24. “Better relationship with technology”
“Languages”
“Adaptability and resilience”
“Competitiveness”
“More opened”
“Integration and multicultural skills”
“Improvement in gender equality”
“Vitality and motivation for working and impact society”
“Entrepreneurial spirit “
“Global vision of the world” (“international perspective of labour
market”)
“Use of Social networks”
“Ease of communication”
QUALITIES
25. “Lack of experience and many things to learn in workplace”
“Demotivation, disillusion” (because of the hard reality and job
market)
Lack of “patience” (“we want everything quickly”) and
“perseverance” (“we give up too soon”)
“Low self-esteem”
“Low spirit of sacrifice”
“Lack of commitment and responsibility”
“Gender equality is still insufficient”
“Image has too much value”
“Excessive competitiveness”
“Lack of humility”
WEAKNESS
27. Career attitude
They suggested that the labour market is too much regulated
Thus, lots of them prefer to work by themselves, creating their own job or they
ask for more mobility and flexibility from their bosses
They are not expecting a career for their life
Technologies
They like to use web technology but when they need to communicate, they
prefer face-to-face communications in the labour communications
They prefer to use technology to have their work organized and to be
updated with some issues that they like or are related to their work.
For them technologies also seem to be helpful to spread information
28. QUALITIES
Studies / Knowledge / competencies
They recognize the lack of some skills that they must learn in the work
context
They refer that the educational system didn't prepare the participants for
acting on labour market
They learned a lot of theoretical material, while they lack practical skills
such as organizing tasks, solving problems, collecting and analyzing
data, time management, write, communication …
Most of respondents stated that they are often distracted, e.g. by social
media
31. Conclusions
They recognize their weakness, the lack of experience, low patience and spirit of sacrifice,
etc.
They are prepared for Life Long Learning since they are not expecting a career for their
life
One of the "secrets" to attract and retain these workers is to motivate them and engage
them in the "mission" of the company
Mobility and flexibility, combined with creativity, allow us to do different and innovate,
without the rigidity of a schedule but with equal commitment
To access the job market they usually make use of internet and personal network
35. We need to change the way we think education!
To see the school as a place of thinking and not as a physical room!
Informal Learning
Formal Learning
Interaction
Videos
Blended
Society
39. ☼Communication (verbal, body language, phone and written emails)
☼Critical Thinking (ability to gather information and others ideas and make
decisions, questioning assumptions from different angles)
☼Interpersonal skills (networking, work relationships, conflict resolution and
office politics)
☼Adaptability (working with other generations, new assignments, and new
people)
☼Teamwork (working well in a team in the workplace)
☼Optimism (staying positive in new situations, how to use negative feedback as
a gift)
☼Resolving conflicts or disagreements (practical strategies you can use to
handle conflict)
Next Steps…
• Mentee Blended-Course aim: To enable iGen
to improve their Soft Skills in the work place
40. ☼Resilience (bouncing back from setbacks, dealing with ambiguity and stress)
☼Being Proactive (learning about the company, department and how your team
is measured for success, getting feedback on performance and making
needed changes to rapidly improve)
☼Time Management (giving a full-day’s work despite social media, punctuality,
balancing work/friends/family)
☼Empathy (understanding others and paying attention to body language and
voice tone to really understand coworkers and customers)
☼Problem Solving (ability to gather relative data and build a logic pattern)
☼Meeting deadlines (getting organized and managing time)
Next Steps…
• Mentee Course aim: To enable iGen to
improve their Soft Skills in the work place
41. A way to face to the challenges of today's society
FAKE BLENDED-LEARNING
Empty package
Helping to increase the frustration of young people
To Conclude: We can not answer the present needs with answers from the past!
Guidelines and Best Practices for Teachers
It is a matter of reputation of educational institution
