By Alicia Tyler on March 17, 2026 Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The experience gap: Why Gen Z’s career launch needs a reboot

By Alicia Tyler on March 17, 2026 Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Gen Z faces an “experience gap” as AI and employer expectations rise. Co-ops, apprenticeships, and hands-on learning are now essential.

In the “olden days”, the one our parents still reference at family dinner, the career path was pretty straightforward. You went to university, got a degree in “something professional,” and landed an entry-level job where you spent two years doing grunt work while more senior staffers “showed you the ropes”, or you faked it until you made it.

In 2026, that “grunt work” is being done by a prompt, and the ropes feel more like a tightrope… without a safety net.

According to Ryan Craig, Managing Director at Achieve Partners and author of Apprentice Nation, Gen Z is facing an “experience gap” that’s widening at a dizzying pace. Employers no longer want to train you; they basically want you to have done the job before they hire you for said entry-level job. It’s a total oxymoron, and it’s changing the game on whether you should be heading to a lecture hall or a job site before entering the workforce.

The “college or Chipotle” conundrum

For years, high school graduates have been forced into a binary choice. “We have these two very different divergent paths,” Craig explains. “On the one hand, you’re being asked to sit in a classroom for two, three, or four more years, earn a degree with no guaranteed employment outcome… or you can get a job as a frontline retail or hospitality worker with little prospect of economic mobility.”

What’s missing is a robust “middle........

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