Lack of computer literacy. When I was in school, we had computer classes that taught us how to use Word, Excel, even Photoshop and Illustrator, etc. And also things like proper netiquette. It seems like students nowadays are just expected to have computer literacy, and it’s either not being taught anymore or is being taught in a severely diminished way. I’m extremely concerned by the number of younger students who don’t know how to use Excel (or, frankly, anything that’s not a social media website/app). Likewise, I believe the fact that young people are no longer taught to be wary of privacy on the internet (and are in fact encouraged to share their personal lives on the internet) is an oversight in education that will harm these people, as well as society, in the future

why do you need to know how to use excel if you don’t ever use it?
That’s what you learn when you get a job. How to use the tools.

This is so naive and just so incorrect. You never get the job in the first place if you don’t have skills (such as Excel) to put on your resume. And if you do, your employer is going to be pretty disappointed to find out that they need to teach you the most basic shit ever.

No. Just because you learned Excel in School doesn’t mean it’s useful to anyone.
If you apply to a welding job straight out of school your employer is still gonna teach you how to weld.
Excel is such a niche thing to know.
Electricians don’t know shit about high voltage lines before they get the job. They learn it. Welders don’t know how to weld. They learn it.
No employer is gonna be pissed because they have to train the trainee how to weld. No electrician is gonna be pissed because they have to explain how a voltage converter works.
Those are also basic things.
You are delusional if you think that more than 5% of all Jobs need Excel knowledge.
Adding onto that: Its so fricking easy. I can explain all you need in excel in 5 minutes.

Your are very ignorant of how professional work is conducted. Companies want to higher people that know how to do their job and have years if experience doing it. Some places do have entry level or junior positions where some training is expected. But in general, you will be hired for the skills you have (not because you have ‘potential’ they would love to spend hours with you teaching you).

For welding and electric work, that is often learned through an apprenticeship, which aren’t eay to land either. That’s how a lot of trades work. But most jobs do not just offer apprenticeships or ‘free teaching’.

Lol no. Most people get hired because there is a need for them.
Is a Starbucks Barista new-hire required to know what the difference between a 2 week old robusta and a 4 week old arabica is?
Does he need to kow how to use a POS System?
Nope. You just train them.

Does a straight out of School Sysadmin need to know what all the 7 Layers are for? Or how to use Wireshark? Or how to configure a Switch from Brand ? No. They learn that on the Job.
Sysadmins also don’t have a trade or vocational school.
Does a new-hire junior programmer need to know the codebase for the program they are being paid to work on? No they get the codebase and learn along.
The last 2 examples were much, MUCH deeper than the amount of excel you realistically need.

Highschoolers do not learn cisco unless they choose to.
And Excel and word are not that deep that you need any knowlede in them. One is a sheet that you can learn in 5 minutes and the other is a word processor.

It is naive to talk about the downfall of computer literacy when everything is moving away from computers.

I manage my Staff from my phone or tablet at home.
I click where i wanna go and i put in what it wants from me.
I can teach this stuff to my 5 year old and the rules behind it to my 16 year old. Both have never touched word or excel.

Someone has never used any function more complex than =sum() in excel…