PREPARING GENERATION Z: BEYOND TECHNOLOGIES

Personal skills such as communication, leadership, teamwork, can be the key factor for differentiation in a technological career. Attending to this, the authors of this paper were motivated to propose a different course (or Curricular Unit, CU) to students of Higher Education level. In this way, this paper describes the aim, objectives, methodology in the creation of an elective CU, called "Preparing Generation Z: beyond technologies (Z-Tec)". Z-Tec, lectured for the first time in the academic year of 2021-2022, allows student to acquire skills that promote a conscious and reflective transition to the job market, namely: to recognize the importance of career preparation and the skills needed for this preparation, to integrate enhancing strategies as a starting point for career management, to recognize such strategies as facilitators for personal, professional and social success, and to identify and critically apply tools that allow to objectively analyze and decide the professional future. Z-Tec puts on active learning methodologies based on practical exercises, debates, seminars and reflective activities. The results discussed are based on the students' perceptions gathered at the beginning of each semester, on the several activities that students developed and on the students' feedback gathered at the end of each semester. A total of 62 students from different areas of knowledge (Engineering, Economy, to Sociology and Public Administration) were positively engaged.