Abstract
This chapter provides a brief overview of generational attributes for Generations X and Y and how they impact workplaces. It introduces The Global Co-Operative and Work-Integrated Education Charter that calls for the scaling up of work integrated programs around the world in recognition of their unique potential for bridging gaps between academia and the world of work and positively impacting the multiple generations working therein. More specifically, the charter positions international work-integrated learning as a particularly effective educational approach for developing the critical understandings, insights, and attitudes needed to effectively navigate the multigenerational and multicultural workplaces that typify our increasingly borderless world of work.
TopIntroduction
Current workplaces are comprised of workers from multiple generations, with each generation having been ascribed certain traits based upon the time period they were born into and the major events that have shaped their collective experiences. Researchers have studied each of the generations and identified traits that broadly define them as a cohort. A subset of this literature has focused on how these traits play out as each new generation joins and participates in the workforce. Studies typically focus on how generational traits may translate into strengths or challenges depending on the overall generational mix, culture, and leadership approach that guides the organization they have joined. Of particular interest is the Gen X, Y, and Z intergenerational mix given that Gen Y and Gen Z will soon surpass their Gen X colleagues and comprise well over half of those in the active workforce. How the generational traits of the two largest cohorts fit together has been studied over the past few decades as Generation X and Generation Y (Millennials) are now working together. These two generations are reported to share many similarities but also several differences, which require attention in order to ensure healthy and productive work environments through reduced intergenerational conflicts (Harber, 2011; Hillman, 2014).
As Gen Y, and more recently Gen Z, students transition to an increasingly changing world of work, certain educational experiences will prove to be very helpful in facilitating their transitions. In particular, students that have partaken in co-operative or work integrated education (CWIE) programs while completing their studies will have advantages that others may not. Specifically, the skills, knowledge, and self-awareness gained through their CWIE experiences will serve to facilitate their transitions to productive work that is more aligned with their interests and studies and better fits the workplaces into which they will enter (Cates & Jones, 1999). Early professional exposures to authentic communities of practice afford a unique opportunity for both “newcomers” and workplace “old timers” to learn from each other within the relative safety of an educational program (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Academic institutions that integrate authentic workplace learning opportunities within their academic programs acknowledge the value of learning in situ and the enhanced learning that can result when students, institutions, and workplace leaders work together. While CWIE programs typically focus on student learning outcomes, the feedback mechanisms embedded in most CWIE models also allow for workplaces to learn from students and institutions, and workplaces to learn from each other as students move between them. The opportunity for new generations of workers to gain early experiences and perspectives from the workplaces into which they will graduate (or create), is critical in supporting them and their work colleagues to navigate any inter-generational challenges they may experience.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Co-Operative and Work Integrated Education (CWIE): Is a term created by WACE to acknowledge the founding model of co-op and embrace all other forms of experiential education that are specifically designed by institutions and employers to prepare the next generation of global citizens and professionals.
Work-Integrated Education (WIE): Refers to educational programs or approaches that involve a student learner, an educational institution and a workplace host working together towards stated learning and work-related outcomes. WIE is designed, monitored and assessed by the institution and hosted by the employer.
Transformational Learning: Is learning that results from challenging one's underlying beliefs and assumptions when faced with a disorienting or discomforting event. This is a result of developing a broadened understanding of one's own beliefs regarding why they feel as they do and determining how they would like to move forward in addressing the problem, based on their new understandings.
Co-Operative Education: Is a particular model of work integrated education that alternates periods of time in full time school with periods of time in full time (often paid) work where student learning is a key outcome. One of the oldest (1906) and most proven models for facilitating the development of employability skills.
World Association for Co-Op and Work-Integrated Education (WACE): Is the international professional organization dedicated to developing, expanding, and advocating for quality co-operative and work integrated education programs within industry and educational institutions worldwide.
Borderless World of Work: Is a term that refers to the fact that many employers now operate in a globalized context, extending beyond traditional geographic and sectoral borders. Global work ready employees are expected to be able to effectively navigate across these borders seamlessly.
Intercultural Fluency: Is the ability to demonstrate one's ability to be sensitive, open, inclusive, and able to effectively work with people from different cultures as part of effectively navigating the borderless world of work.
Work-Integrated Learning: Refers to learning outcomes that are realized through immersion in a workplace context.