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What is Reverse Mentoring?

In the context of the fourth industrial revolution, we cannot fail to mention Reskilling and Reverse Mentoring.

We have already discussed in this article of eLearningNews the important topic of Reskilling, or the process of learning new skills aimed at workers, essential to put a professional already in the conditions of being able to perform a job different from the one currently or previously performed.

The sense of reskilling lies in the forecasts of changes in the world of work and the specific nature of the work planned for the coming years. Following the extensive digitalization and industrial automation underway, millions of people will need to change jobs; many jobs will disappear, but many new jobs will be born and spread rapidly.

To face these imminent changes in the work of tomorrow, it is therefore necessary to activate today the skills of workers, not only to create new and specific skills in the "new" workers, but also to "retrain" the "existing" and "elderly" workers, or to provide workers over 50 and who are the least flexible in adapting to the new professions, specific and qualified training, especially in Digital Skills.

Digital Skills are those skills that “consist of knowing how to use information society technologies (IST) for work, leisure and communication with confidence and a critical spirit. They are supported by basic skills in ICT (Information and Communication Technologies): the use of computers to find, evaluate, store, produce, present and exchange information as well as to communicate and participate in collaborative networks via the Internet "(definition of the European Parliament ).

Let's go back to talking about digital skills and reskilling topics because in recent days an interesting article was published in PuntoSicuro - the daily free news on safety at work in Italy - created by Dr. Massimo Servadio (Psychotherapist and Psychologist of Work and Organizations) and dedicated to acquiring and developing digital skills among millennial and over-fifty workers.

The article, which I invite you to read directly in original language on this page, proposes a practical solution to the need of companies (in particular in Italy) to identify ways of developing digital skills that take into account the generational gaps of their workers and that guarantee effective responses in the short term.

This answer is called "Reverse Mentoring", a method that favors a mode of transmission of knowledge that goes from the youngest to the oldest, trying to bring together the digital knowledge of the young person with the experience of the senior.

The objective is therefore twofold: young people have a lot to teach to the 'elderly' on technological issues, but also on resourcefulness, creative thinking, forecasting skills, integration of different visions and opinions and management of change; the elderly have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the new forms of communication and work organization and transmit the basic principles to make a business plan, identify a goal and have a defined vision.

Finally, this intergenerational experiential exchange also allows for the development of innovative leadership models that can be beneficial to all.

Read the full article ...


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