Are Young People Bad At Communicating In Person?

The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) has launched a new course to help teach Gen Z how to be in an office environment.

Most of those born in generation Z came of age during the pandemic, and research has found this caused a struggle with offline interaction.

On this episode of the Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt speaks with researcher Claire Madden about the skills Gen Z are apparently lacking:

NIDA’s course, Prologue, is focused on helping young people navigate confronting interpersonal interactions such as job interviews, asking for a pay rise, or presenting in front of a group of people.

Courses like these have grown from research showing that younger employees have a skills gap in interactions that are offline, like picking up the phone instead of an email or text.

But Madden says the misconception that this generation are intentionally avoiding offline interaction is not the case.

“I regularly find that Gen Zs really value the social sides of work and life, the in-person, the relationships,” Madden says.

“They are so thrown into the screen world that there can be a bit of a confidence gap.”

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