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YouTube is an L&D powerhouse for younger workers

YouTube is an L&D powerhouse for younger workers

We all understand how every generation learns differently, and organisations ought to leverage Gen Z's love for videos.

Gen Z workers will be individuals born after 1997 and will constitute around 27 of the workforce by 2025, and this percentage is bound to rise with time. They are also the most significant generation history has known, which is well-educated and diverse, and thanks to that, the world will benefit socially from them for many years to come. Their mentality and skills can bring changes in politics and business to culture and climate change.

Because they are the first generation to come of age in the age of smartphones, Gen Z spends the most significant number of hours than other generations, even outcross YouTube. Just like Gen X and Baby Boomers were raised eating and watching the television, younger generations, especially 85% of teenagers, are eating up YouTube as a sweet cake. Why? What makes it so attractive? Two things are to blame. First, YouTube is very entertaining, and second, it has a lot of useful educational material. And every teacher knows the borders can sometimes serve as extended goals, as when knowledge and entertainment are combined, the outputs are radically more excellent.

People today learn and practice skills differently because of the YouTube platform, which was not possible before. Independent researches support this connection. For example, according to recent statistics published by Think with Google, 80 percent of Gen Z teenagers claim that they learned something new thanks to YouTube, and 68 percent agree that YouTube allowed them to enhance or acquire valuable skills in the future.

Consider the role that 'Study with Me' videos played during the pandemic in creating an atmosphere conducive to studying. The emergence of educational channels such as the Khan Academy has been accompanied by the growth of hundreds of thousands of emerging creators whose focus is creating something for the audiences to learn – school subjects, hobbies, art, sciences, self-development, business, and more. This has also prompted the development of other online video learning platforms like Udemy, Coursera, and Udacity.

But it’s more than just Gen Z

Though YouTube manages to spark interest in education, especially among the younger audience, its utilisation is not only limited to that. YouTube states that 72 percent of people in the age group, which is between 36 and 55, are also active learners on the platform.

There's only one Matthew Syed and Malcolm Gladwell; however, over on YouTube, there are personal development and productivity stars who don't even have to be household names and have massive followings. These content creators also target the audience in an ethnic, generational, and gender-neutral way. People like Shetty, Abdaal, Frank, D'Avella, and Lavendaire. By focusing the telescope to the center of gravity on L&D strategies in the context of the YouTube learning app strategy, L&D can capture not only the interest of the younger generation workforce but employees of every age, every background, and every place.

The learning possibilities that are easily obtainable through YouTube are astonishing, and the good thing is that these are free of cost. What is it about these videos that makes it easy to learn from? Such top-quality quality is leveraged on YouTube for one reason and one reason only.

Some of the best content posted on YouTube is mind-blowing and worth more than any closed learning institution resources. The additional advantage, of course, is that it is available for everyone, which is one of the most essential advantages nowadays, as such an activity as 'leveling up' has become an essential part of the social and political agenda.

The internet has been described as the greatest equaliser since the beginning of its use. It has brought about an initiative towards worldwide free education, and with some work, the material provided, particularly in terms of YouTube, is the best. Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, currently the largest school in the world both virtually and otherwise, believes that YouTube will become a surreal realisation of the third and final stage of education development along with book writing and printing – free, reasonable quality education for all.

Apart from these, there are additional advantages to look at. In addition to the physical element of accessibility, anyone can pick up and learn new things using the video format. Compared to the traditional approach to teaching in classrooms, video pedagogy is more accommodating of the fundamental differences in learner characteristics and preferences. Learning from books and manuals is not always easy; YouTube is fast and practical. Anyone can utilise it – if you can't get through, you can stop the film, rewind it several times, or watch fragments repeatedly and make notes.

Because of the global crisis, L&D budgets are incredibly tight right now. Despite this, some organisations are not taking advantage of what is on offer cannot be understood. Many large firms continue training within classrooms or cloistered content libraries. Why is it that companies cannot make more use of the largest and best resource for learning that exists in the world?

How to make the most of YouTube’s learning content

The most important factor is content curation because of the tremendous amount of content on the site. It tries to identify, screen, classify, and arrange YouTube materials to assist in training the organisation. Now, this task can be performed with the help of the available means. Try introducing thematic weeks when you combine news coverage, such as corporate sustainability – health and wellbeing.

With this type of encouragement, it will not be long before people naturally begin to discover self-development and, every so often, further education, essential to having successful careers, coping with changes, and assisting in achieving organisation goals.

 

by João Nogueira Santos|People Management