What about The Young Employee?

 

We tend to place some focus on the more mature demographic - especially those who may be challenged to adopt digital literacies. But what about the communications skills of newcomers to the job-market?

We are now beginning to see a generation of school-leavers who had two years of their academic progress disrupted by a recent public health emergency. What actions can we take to assist those youngsters who experienced such lamentable disconnections not only from their education , but from their peer-support groups, fractured cohesiveness and relationships with adults in schools, which so many of us took for granted?

Perhaps help with onboarding is at hand. Government funding can assist employers to get Training Support for their employees. What a great way to recompense a generation which has been so overlooked.

Estimating the average amount of schooling lost by a 16-year-old due to COVID-19 restrictions can be challenging as it varies significantly depending on various factors such as the country, region, school district, and individual circumstances. However, I can provide some general insights.

During the peak of the pandemic, many schools worldwide closed their physical campuses and shifted to remote learning or hybrid models to prevent the spread of the virus. These disruptions in education have resulted in varying degrees of lost instructional time for students.

According to UNESCO, at the height of the pandemic, approximately 1.6 billion learners across the globe were affected by school closures. For some, this resulted in months of missed schooling.

Here in New Zealand, using available stats for Early Childhood Education alone - :

“We estimate a total of 35.5 million hours of formal ECE has been lost due to COVID-19. This works out to be about 177 hours for the average child in Auckland, and 108 hours for the average child outside of Auckland.”

Is this a time-bomb?

In the case of a 16-year-old, who typically attends high school or its equivalent, the amount of schooling lost may have been substantial, ranging from a few weeks to several months depending on the duration of school closures and the effectiveness of remote learning measures implemented by schools.

However, it's essential to note that efforts were made in many places to mitigate these losses through online learning platforms, virtual classes, and other remote educational resources. Additionally, some regions have implemented strategies such as extended school years or summer catch-up programs to help students recover lost learning.

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