We need to communicate
“One of the main problems for older people is their low demand by society. This is a problem not only for our country, but also for the whole world,” says sociologist-demographer, member of the Public Council under the Commissioner for Children’s Rights, executive director of the Dniester-Prut Information and Analytical Center Igor Beloborodov . – Although there are exceptions, as, for example, in the Caucasus, where the opinions of older people are listened to and they can always share their experiences. Thanks to this, they feel needed. By the way, this is one of the factors why life expectancy is longer in the Caucasus.”
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Don't deprive grandmothers. Is it possible to entrust grandchildren to the older generation? In Transnistria, where Beloborodov now spends a lot of time, they also attach great importance to veterans communicating with children, sharing their experiences. This happens informally - during cultural and social events. He believes that we also need to involve labor heroes, military veterans, famous athletes, people of art, etc. in communicating with children.
But, unfortunately, the sociologist notes, in the modern world there is a large distance between different generations, even within families. As a result, older people are unable to communicate their life experiences. And this is very bad not only for them, but also for younger generations.
“I really like the social experiment that was done in Canada,” he says. – There, boarding schools for the elderly were combined with orphanages. Thanks to this, older people, passing on their knowledge and experience to the children, began to feel needed. This had a positive effect on their psychological state and health, and brightened up the children’s orphanhood and gave them life lessons. I support the idea that we should also have similar social complexes, where orphans and children from disadvantaged families would live together with lonely elderly people. And they, acting as mentors, would partly perform the functions of grandparents.”
We are accustomed to thinking that the difference in mentality between generations today is enormous and close contact is hardly possible. But that's not true. “There are differences, but, as experience shows, when they communicate, they begin to understand each other,” the expert is sure. – We are wrong to think that the elderly are hopelessly behind the youth in the computer and digital spheres. In fact, many of them easily use these technologies. By the way, the exchange of knowledge can be two-way. I think courses in which teenagers would help older people improve their computer skills would really bring different generations together.”
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Fathers and Sons. Overload with care is a common mistake of the older generation
Option 1
Life experience is knowledge and skills accumulated over generations, conclusions. The mistakes made by our ancestors and the conclusions drawn on their basis are also experience. They say that it is better to learn from other people's mistakes. There is no need to reinvent the wheel again if it has already been done before us. Using your existing knowledge, you need to move forward. This is facilitated by experience passed on from generation to generation. It is the basis, the foundation, on which new knowledge is built. Examples include situations described in works of fiction.
A clear example of the continuity of generations is the novel by I.S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons". The Kirsanov brothers entered adulthood with the life experience of their parents before their eyes. Pavel Petrovich continued the family dynasty and became a military man. Nikolai Petrovich married and became a landowner. He tries to apply innovations in his farm, but still uses the experience of previous generations as a basis. He passed on these same concepts about life to his son. The Kirsanovs observe family traditions and value noble honor. Arkady chose a girl who looked like his mother as his wife. Having paid tribute to fashionable trends during his student years, he will live as a landowner on an estate. He, just like his father, loves literature, nature, and music. He will also do household chores and raise children. Turgenev emphasizes the inviolability of this order of things, contrasting the Kirsanovs with the nihilist Bazarov. Life experience unites generations, preserving the best that their ancestors could understand. Thanks to such continuity, folk culture, worldview, human values, family traditions, and the memory of ancestors live. The connection between generations should not be interrupted so that people remember their roots, do not repeat mistakes and move forward along the path of development.
Epic novel by M.A. Sholokhova tells the life story of the Cossack family Melekhov. Panteley Prokofievich, the head of the family, takes care of preserving traditions and the moral basis of life. He lived his entire life by his labor. They had a large farm. They plowed the land, cut hay, and fished. Men were required to do military service. Women looked after the house and raised children. Pantelei Prokofievich is trying to pass on his experience to children. He wants them to understand that land and family are the most important things in life. Only everything collapses. Son Gregory leaves his legal wife and leaves with his mistress. Daria's daughter-in-law, having seen her husband off to work, cheats on him with other Cossacks. Panteley Prokofievich is trying with all his might to glue the family together. The novel begins with a conversation between father and son, in which P.P. explains to him that you need to live amicably with your neighbors, that you shouldn’t look at other people’s wives. This will not lead to good. Grigory later became convinced that his father was right. The wife he abandoned died trying to get rid of her pregnancy. Daria drowned herself when she realized that she had contracted a bad disease. Grief and pain were brought to the family by rash actions. At the end of the work, Gregory returns to his home, where his little son is waiting for him. He understands the futility of his throwing. If he had immediately listened to his father’s advice and supported his aspirations, he would have been able to avoid many mistakes. Living life, a person preserves the knowledge of his ancestors and accumulates his own experience; the world rests on this.
To summarize, we can say that the life experience of generations helps to avoid tragic mistakes and make the right decisions. Thanks to the knowledge of ancestors, passed on from generation to generation, ancestral memory and family traditions are preserved. The experience of previous generations underlies the achievements of those living today.
Mentoring Territory
The WorldSkills Russia Academy has several projects directly related to mentoring.
“Back in 2021, together with the Russian Ministry of Labor, we began training the first 700 industrial training masters so that they would master the world standards of WorldSkills professional competencies and be able to transfer this knowledge to students of colleges and other educational institutions,” explains the Deputy General Director for Personnel Training at WorldSkills Russia”, director of the academy Svetlana Kraichinskaya . – Since 2021, we have continued this work together with the Ministry of Education and Science, and then with the Ministry of Education. During this time, 12 thousand people from all regions of Russia were trained. As a matter of principle, we do not divide master mentors by age. Their professionalism is at the forefront. That’s why we have masters and teachers who are over 80, and those who are 22–25 years old. They study together and master modern technologies.”
In addition, this year the WorldSkills Union, together with the Ministry of Labor and the Federal Service for Labor and Employment, is participating in the implementation of a program of professional retraining for people of pre-retirement age, which began as part of the federal project “Older Generation” (part of the national project “Demography”).
“According to the plans, we must annually train 25 thousand people according to WorldSkills standards,” says the expert. – Among them there are those who serve as mentors at their enterprises or plan to become one. There is very great interest on the part of enterprises, especially industrial ones, in teaching mentoring skills to older people.”
However, among the organization’s large community of experts there are quite a lot of elderly people. “These are the bearers of professional knowledge and skills; they can demonstrate them in practice and teach them to others. In June 2021, we trained the very first group of masters in the “repair and maintenance of passenger cars” competency, and they were taught by our experienced certified expert. And if you now look at the photo of this group, during this time all of them themselves have become certified experts, mentors who are now preparing new participants in our movement,” adds Kraichinskaya.
The belief that learning ability is weak is a stereotype
Another disadvantage that employers often attribute to older workers is less ability to learn.
Which, again, means less receptivity to new methods and technologies of work, new experience. Is it really? We asked the opinion of Victoria Virta, the founder of the Internet Reserve Academy and the Delovik mutual assistance service for entrepreneurs. Among her students there are quite a few representatives of the “45” generation.
“I see that what prevents representatives of the older generation from learning most of all is their own skeptical attitude. This is an interesting example of a double standard: let’s say a 50-year-old manager himself periodically attends seminars, trainings and improves his qualifications. But he doesn’t want to hire someone his age without experience - he doesn’t believe that he can learn quickly,” says Victoria.
In her opinion, the problem is always not with age, but with a specific person and his attitudes. “Why is it easier for young people to study? Because they have an attitude that they need to study in order to move up the career ladder faster, start earning more, become independent, and sometimes prove something to someone, says Victoria. — There are people over 40–50 years old who continue to study and do it successfully. Many of our students are like this, because they are entrepreneurs, and among them there are many older people. Another thing is that if they are not business owners, but hired employees, then it is simply more difficult for them than for young people to prove that they can take on new tasks and complete them successfully, if they have never done this before.
In addition, they sometimes have the attitude that they no longer need to learn new knowledge and skills, they already know everything. Therefore, a manager, while admitting the possibility and necessity of learning at any age, may fear that his peer has the opposite attitude, and that is why he will not hire him.”
Therefore, when selecting an employee for a vacancy that requires preliminary or frequent training, you should look not at the candidate’s age, but at his personal attitudes - if he is open to new knowledge and is motivated to study, then he will cope regardless of age.
“We regularly train dozens and hundreds of new employees,” Elizaveta Generalova shares her experience with MIEL.
— The majority of visitors to industry seminars and trainings are people over 40 years old. Without training there is no movement forward - realtors understand this. There are ways to teach adults, and we actively use them. For example, not a single student of our MIEL School will do something simply because he was “told so.” First, he must develop conscious incompetence - this is when a person becomes convinced that he does not know how to do something, and understands that he needs it for his work. This is how the need to learn arises. For example, until you call a client for the first time, you are convinced that building communication is not so easy - you need to learn it.” According to Elizabeth’s observations, reluctance to learn something new, difficult adaptation to new realities is a characteristic not so much of age as of personality.
“Working for a long time in one environment in one direction, people often become “canned.” This also happens to 30-year-olds - if they have worked in the same company for the last 7-10 years and, for example, were engaged in only one area of work, she says. “The need to change comes when there is an understanding that there are young people nearby and they can do it faster, which means I need to learn too.”
Train both head and hands at the same time
One of the areas where the mentoring institute works today, most often informally, is science. The 1990s created a gap between generations here, and today there are, as a rule, two of them in scientific institutions - the elderly and the youth.
, ophthalmic surgeon Valentina Kopaeva is called “a member of the founding team of the Eye Microsurgery MNTK.”
When this institution, popularly known as the Svyatoslav Fedorov Center, opened in 1986, she was already on the team of a famous ophthalmologist. She started working with him much earlier – in 1970. When communicating with Professor Kopaeva, it is difficult to imagine that she graduated from the First Medical School 60 years ago, in 1959, and defended her PhD thesis 52 years ago, in 1967. Valentina Grigorievna looks much younger than her age, her voice is firm, her speech is clear, her thoughts are clear. She continues to be actively involved in science and teaching. Thousands of students and doctors trained with her. Working at the department of S. Fedorov, she taught eye diseases to students of the Third Medical Center. And in 1981, she organized and headed a scientific and educational institute, where doctors began to be taught ophthalmic surgery.
“The technologies developed by Svyatoslav Nikolaevich were interesting not only in Russia, but also abroad. Foreigners were ready to pay for their studies and buy our artificial lenses,” says Valentina Grigorievna. “For four years, Fedorov and I have been knocking doorsteps, writing to the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Ministry of Health of the USSR and the RSFSR, asking for permission for our institute to officially conduct postgraduate training for doctors. At that time, research institutions did not have the right to issue state-issued documents.”
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One good thing for all generations. Are the values of “fathers” and “children” different? Finally, in 1981, the USSR Ministry of Health allowed the organization of a training course for Russian and foreign specialists on a commercial basis at the institute. Soviet doctors and representatives of the socialist camp studied for free; only cadets from capitalist countries paid for training.
“Ophthalmologists from the USA, Italy, Japan, Venezuela, Greece and other countries studied with us. 80% of the foreign currency earned went to purchase equipment,” recalls Kopaeva. We were not selling oil, but high surgical technologies and our knowledge. We trained doctors who admitted that they had taken similar courses in the USA or Great Britain, but after them they could not operate themselves. And when they left us, they already had experience performing 25-30 operations in our gyms.”
The textbook “Eye Diseases,” prepared under the guidance of veteran doctor Kopaeva in 2002 and subsequently published 4 times, is used by students of medical universities in Russia and the CIS countries. She has many scientific achievements, but it seems that her main thing is the development of technology for removing cataracts using lasers. The installation for this was developed jointly with the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Optics in St. Petersburg. Today it is clear that this is the most effective and safe operation. Since 1997, this domestic technology of laser cataract extraction has been used in the clinics of the MNTK and its branches in a number of Russian cities, as well as in Uzbekistan, Krigizia, Ukraine, and Cyprus.
Professor Kopaeva has many students and like-minded people who absorb her experience and embody her ideas.
