What are Digital Skills Still Lacking to Survive in Digital World?

ERIC HERMAWAN1, DIENA DWIDIENAWATI2*, ANGGRAENI WORO HAPSARI3

*Corresponding Author

conducted to review their workplace and everyday skill digital readiness. The result showed that Generation Z

was ready for three digital skills, which were Collaboration Technology, Digital administration, and Creative

Design. Then the unpreparedness of Generation Z was in 3 digital skills, namely Encryption and cyber security,

Coding and app development, and Sales technology. The self-rating of everyday digital skills showed that most

of Generation Z have readiness at the Advanced level, rated at 8-10. However, they were unprepared for the

Data Analytics and Productivity Program skills.

Key-Words: - digital skills, digital readiness, digital transformation, generation Z

Received: June 11, 2022. Revised: April 21, 2023. Accepted: May 15, 2023. Published: June 19, 2023.

creation, and social welfare as a strategic move

emphasizing long-term policy. The study, [2],

explained that digital transformation must be carried

out by companies as a form of innovation from

developing technology to improve company

performance. In other words, digital transformation

positively impacts companies to increase

productivity and performance.

Regardless of the importance of digital

transformation, the emergence of digital

must be able to carry out digital transformation in

the company sustainability, [3].

The most important part of digital

transformation is not the system itself. Changing the

working system and business in the digital era

requires expertise in the technology field. To

were born between 1995-2012, [7]. Generation Z is

the first generation born in the world of internet-

connected technology. Generation Z has become

accustomed to technology or digital media. With the

advancement of technology, studies have shown that

technology is one of the key modifiers of human

smartphone, and 25% of them have a smartphone

before the age of ten, [9]. The most striking

characteristic of technology in Generation Z is that

they are a tech-savvy generation. According to

many dictionaries, a tech-savvy person is a person

who is well-educated about new technologies and

uses his skills to take advantage of existing

technologies, [10]. According to [11], Tech-savvy

conjures up images of young digital people easily

using technology in ways that are often difficult for

focusing on technology or digital device usage

behavior on average have found that Generation Z

got their first smartphone at age 12, around grade 7.

Their digital connection started at an earlier age than

the previous generations; this means smartphones

became one of their first screens, and Generation Z

is a genuinely mobile-focused generation.

Furthermore, Generation Z has complex and

valuable knowledge related to digital. Regardless of

the common knowledge that Gen Z used technology

A survey by the Global Digital Skill Index Survey

found that digital readiness for Generation Z does

not even reach a third. Moreover, a survey has been

done in 19 countries focused on Generation Z. It

turns out that the Digital Skill Readiness index only

reached 31 out of 100 points compared to 33 points

for the entire generation, [16].

Aside from that, Salesforce found a skills gap

where only a third of respondents felt ready for the

social media skills in the workplace needed over the

readiness level in Indonesia for Everyday Digital

Skills?

companies with good digital readiness where

employees can create much higher revenues and

profitability than companies with lower digital

readiness levels, [24].

There are four benefits of Digital Readiness

within organizations. The first is to increase

work environment. Moreover, encouraging changes

will come from the top down by informing,

engaging, and empowering employees to help foster

a digital mindset internally

The mean value is then classified into the

importance level and skill level diagram.

Workplace digital skills are classified as

collaborative technology, digital administration,

encryption and cyber security, E-commerce and

digital trade, and Project management technology

gadget. Then the second gadget was laptops (47%).

Ipad was the third gadget (49%). The computer was

the fourth gadget (36%)

digital skills were important and at the same time

they claimed that they had very good skills in those.

Then the unpreparedness of Generation Z was in 3

digital skills, namely Encryption and cyber security,

Coding and app development, and Sales technology.

They claimed that those three skills are important

but they did not have a very good skill on those

three.

Figure 3 also showed that Artificial Intelligence

skills (such as VR, Chatbot, and Face ID) resulted in

a scale of 7.27 and their skill level was quite low

with a scale of 4.99. Then the Collaboration

Technology skills (such as ZOOM, WhatsApp,

LINE, Microsoft Outlook, Google Docs, and

Google Sheets) resulted in the majority of

respondents feeling that these skills were critical

with a scale of 8.66 and their skill level was the

advanced scale of 9.33. Creative Design skills (such

as typography, adobe creative, and Canva) resulted

in most respondents feeling that these skills were

scale of 7.88, and their skill level was intermediate

with a scale 6.

these skills were essential with a scale of 7.59, and

their skill level was intermediate with a scale of

5.26. For Project Management Technology (Trello)

skills, most respondents feel they were essential on

a scale of 7.54, and their skill level was intermediate

with a scale of 5.36. The last one on Sales

Fig. 4: Everyday Digital Skills

Analytics and Productivity Program skills, with

41% and 69% claiming they had advanced levels in

Figure 4 also shows that in the Web Navigation

skill (such as browsing and searching), 78% of the

respondents are at the Advanced level, 18% are at

the Intermediate level, and only 4% of the

respondents are at the Beginner level. On Social

Media skills (such as Instagram, Twitter, YouTube,

Facebook, LINE, WhatsApp, TikTok, and

Telegram,) 90% of the respondents are at the

were at the Advanced level, 28% were at the

Intermediate level, and only 3% were at the

Beginner level.

COVID-19 Pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic

has forced a change in habits from offline to online-

based activities that require communication and

working with teams virtually using platforms such

as Microsoft, Google Classroom, virtual classroom

platforms such as video conferencing, namely

(YouTube, TikTok) being the primary medium

across all generations and genders, gen Z is no

exception, [29].

In Digital Administrative skills (Google Docs,

power points, excel, planner, notes, etc.) Generation

Z considers these skills very important with the skill

level they have intermediate, this is because

platforms such as Google Docs and Microsoft are

platforms that they often use since entering the

world of education to the world of work. Generation

comfortable with distance learning and working

from home, especially since the COVID-19

pandemic. In short, Generation Z uses technology

for instant and independent learning,

communication, and collaboration, [30].

In Creative Design skills (typography, adobe

creative, canvas, etc.) Generation Z considers these

skills are very important with the skill level they

have advanced, this is because according to [31],

experts say Generation Z prefers YouTube because

increasing because today's applications are

increasing in number and are easy to use such as

Canva, and Adobe. Generation Z prefers visual

content over text because it is easier and more

useful for them to use. Nearly half of Generation Z

say they watch YouTube for three hours or more

every day, according to data from GenHQ. Since

most grew up in digital media, Gen Z confidently

navigates visually oriented digital interfaces, [31].

Then the unpreparedness of Generation Z is in 3

This study only depicts the digital readiness of

Generation Z. This study did not research the

reasons behind each situation. Therefore, a

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