Job skills

I am concerned about Gen Z people coming into the work force. When I was in industry and we hired new people we looked at two areas. The first was academic and second social skills. As far as academic we wanted people who could read and write. By that I mean can you read a ten page essay and write me a one page summery. Every thing else you need to know we will teach you. The reason we liked to hire engineers is not for what they learned in school but the fact that this was proof they could learn. The second and more important area, social skills, is what we really looked at because this is not something we can teach on the job. As a plant manager most of my time was spent trying to get Joe to get along with Jim. It was extremely important that people be able to work as a team and often times my job was just soothing egos. Young people learn social skills in school and especially high school and this is where my above mentioned concern lies. We learn about how to understand and empathize with others by communicating with others. We learn about body language and facial expression and these help us to understand the words between the lines and this is how we develop social skills. Only a few years ago when students were given free time the last few minutes of class they would start visiting with one another but today almost all of them just look at their smart phone. They may have a handle on the read and write part but not so sure about their ability to get along in the group.