Gen Z Prioritizes Sustainability, Digital Skills in Shaping Economic Recovery

A recent survey conducted by Dell Technologies across 15 international locations showed that 47% of Generation Z (18-26 years old) would be willing to accept short-term economic limitations in order to promote more sustainable growth.

The survey aimed to give Gen Z adults a voice in social and economic recovery strategies. 64% of respondents believed that technology will play a crucial role in the fight against climate change.

Sustainability

The top three areas that the respondents believe that governments should prioritize are sustainable energy (42%), enabling a circular economy (39%), and more sustainable public transport (29%). A quarter of the respondents also expressed support for increased sustainability education.

Gen Z is split in their confidence that public sector recovery investments will result in a thriving economy within 10 years, with 32% having low or no confidence, 38% undecided, and 29% having high or total confidence.

There were geographical differences, with 56% of respondents from Singapore and 41% from Korea having high or total confidence, while 47% from Japan and 49% from Brazil had low or no confidence.

56% of the respondents felt that there should be stronger legislation and higher investment in cybersecurity to protect national infrastructures and ensure that private businesses meet high standards.

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38% of the respondents want private and public sectors to work together to improve trust in governments.

76% of Gen Z considers learning new digital skills essential for increasing future career options and plan to acquire them.

However, 44% felt that school only taught them basic computing skills and 37% felt that school did not prepare them with the necessary technology skills for their planned careers.

Technology courses

To close the digital skills gap, a third of the respondents suggested making technology courses more interesting and widely available, and 26% believed that mandatory technology courses up to 16 years of age would encourage young people to pursue technology-driven careers.

Gen Z believes that closing the digital divide should focus on access to devices and connectivity for disadvantaged groups (33%) and connectivity in rural areas (24%).

Improving healthcare services (21%), investing in education to close the skills gap (11%), and investing in sustainable/green infrastructure (11%) were the top three priorities globally among Generation Z to support economic growth. 57% of Gen Z had low or neutral confidence in the compliance of their personal data storage by healthcare providers.