T+D Blog posted an entry today entitled There Is Not Much Difference Between Baby Boomers and Gen Y Grads. This slightly misleading title refers to a study which reported that new graduates, regardless of whether they graduated this year or 30 year ago, will make compromises to advance their career and succeed. This was probably in response to reports about Gen Y such as, but not necessarily, CIO.com’s October 2007 articles entitled Management Techniques for Bringing Out the Best in Generation Y and Employers Change Corporate HR Policies to Cater to Generation Y, Survey Finds.
What T+D Blog post does mention the report highlights as a fundamental difference is that:
today’s graduates are more community-oriented than boomers, and are more concerned with ethical behavior of employers and economic security.
Gen Y, Web 2.0 and Communities – a topic that has been in the forefront of my mind for a while now. In September 2006, I delivered a presentation at the Montreal ISPI Chapter conference entitled Designing eLearning Environments for Learning Organizations where I specifically addressed how the Gen Y, alternately referred to as “the Millennials”), have already incorporated social media technologies into their everyday lives and how forward-thinking learning organizations could leverage these spaces to get the communication flowing throughout the entire organization.
After watching this mash-up video on Informal learning & web 2.0 featuring Jay Cross, Donald Clark and Nigel Paine, I’m inclined to think that this wouldn’t be simply a trend brought forward by Gen Y, but rather technology catching up with the optimal and efficient way for professionals/adults to learn.
References:
- There Is Not Much Difference Between Baby Boomers and Gen Y Grads | T+D Blog | 01 July 2008
- Management Techniques for Bringing Out the Best in Generation Y | CIO | Deborah Gilburg | 26 October 2007
- Employers Change Corporate HR Policies to Cater to Generation Y, Survey Finds| CIO | Meridith Levinson | 31 October 2007
- Designing eLearning Environments for Learning Organizations | Technogenii.net | Kristina Schneider | 28 September 2006
- Informal learning & web 2.0: the mash-up | Informal Learning Blog | Jay Cross | 30 June 2008