Nowadays, the European labour market reflects demographic changes characterized by an ageing workforce, later retirement ages through which working longer is needed, and increasingly age divers work teams (CEDEFOP, 2012). Consequently, many organizations face the challenge of maintaining the relevant knowledge and experience of older workers within their organization. The purpose of this symposium is to illustrate how intergenerational learning can be seen as a way to cope with the growing trend of age diversity within organizations. Intergenerational learning as a research topic has been a relatively new addition to the field of educational sciences, notwithstanding it is closely related to research on learning and education in profession-related contexts. The organizational contexts of the contributions in this symposium are both educational institutions and other workplaces such as complex, multi-actor environments.

The three major generations in the workplace are often referred to as Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. In this, the distinction between generational cohorts is based on chronological age. Mannheim (1952) suggested that members of a generation have mutual social experiences and shared historical events through which they interpret their environment in a similar way.

Intergenerational learning can be defined as an interactive process that occurs between different generations through which new knowledge, skills and values can be acquired (Ropes, 2013). Within organizational contexts, intergenerational learning can be beneficial for both the individual as the organisation itself. Therefore, intergenerational learning has the potential to improve organizational capacity and to increase the level of social capital (Newman & Hatton-Yeo, 2008). Also, interactions between employees of different generations are important for innovations within organizations (Bontekoning, 2007). These intergenerational interactions can take place within contexts of formal and informal learning.

Besides interactions between different generations of employees, also leadership plays an important role in intergenerational learning. Effective knowledge transfer within an intergenerational workforce is an outcome of the organization’s capacity to facilitate effective measures to enhance knowledge transfer opportunities between the generational cohorts (Starks, 2013). Hereby, special attention goes to rethinking tacit knowledge transfer within the intergenerational workforce.

The first paper presented in this symposium focusses on types of intergenerational learning among teachers. The second study introduces the questions how and what teachers learn from their younger and elder colleagues. The third study goes deeper into these intergenerational relationships within school teams by using social network analysis. Whereas the previous studies are related to school teams, the fourth paper is related to complex, multi-actor environments. It presents a conceptual framework for understanding the role of intergenerational learning in the gaining of specific leadership competencies.

This symposium creates a bridge between different initiatives on the topic of intergenerational learning in Europe such as “Intergenerational Relations Collaboration” and the research project “Intergenerational Learning in Various Social Environments" , supported by Czech Science Foundation.

Bontekoning, A. C. (2007). Generaties in organisaties. Ridderkerk: Labyrint Publications. CEDEFOP. (2012). Working and ageing. The benefits of investing in an ageing workforce. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Mannheim, K. (1952). Essays on the sociology of knowledge. London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Newman, S., & Hatton-Yeo, A. (2008). Intergenerational learning and the contributions of older people. Ageing horizons(8), 31-39. Ropes, D. (2013). Intergenerational learning in organizations. European Journal of Training and Development, 37(8), 713-727. Starks, A. (2013). The forthcoming generational workforce transition and rethinking organizational knowledge transfer. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, 11, 223-237.