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International Law

: Freedom to Differ

Generation Facebook's skills are apparently being wasted at work

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ZD News reports that employers are under-utilising the skills of the Generation Facebook:

The tech savvy of "Generation Facebook" is going down the drain at work, new research has found.

People who have left school in the past three years have strong confidence in their IT skills, but the organizations they work for are not always making the most of this skill set, according to database software company FileMaker, which commissioned the research.

The vast majority (82 percent) of 16- to 18-year-olds surveyed felt confident about their level of general IT skills going into the workplace--a higher percentage than those who felt confident about their interpersonal skills (64 percent).

"The generation of people coming into the workplace now have had technology around them all of their lives, so whether it's Facebook, or whether it's MSN, or whatever it might be, it's second nature to them," said Tony Speakman, regional manager northern Europe at FileMaker, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif.

To a parent, Speakman added, it may seem as though their children "seem to waste so much time on these social-networking sites. But actually what this means when they're put in front of technology in a business sense: they're in no way intimidated by it."

According to the research, 85 percent of university graduates and those who have left school learned to use PowerPoint software while in school, but only 39 percent reported using it at work. A further 88 percent learned to use spreadsheet software, but only 65 percent said they use it as part of their job.

In addition, only 51 percent said they had actively looked for creative ways to use technology at work.

Speakman warned that businesses are failing to make the most of this innate love of tech.