Giving Back to the Next Generation: How to Pass on Key Skills

When you’re a little more senior in your role, entering the mid-point of your career, you’ll start thinking about how you can help the next generation flourish as you did. You may take on a mentoring role at your company, or seek opportunities to make speeches at conferences or universities. You may even choose to become an educator full-time, quitting your role in industry to teach classes online or in person; but how can you get to these positions where you’re able to hand out information for young people? This guide will explain how you’ll do it.

  • Talks and Speeches

One of the most common ways in which leaders give back to young people is through talks and speeches. On YouTube, just about every profession and field has a keynote speaker, and influencers keen to share their knowledge and expertise. You can be one of them if you begin working on your public profile, public speaking skills, and contacts in the world of conferences, workshops and online talks. You’ll be surprised how many channels and communities are looking for bright new speakers to share their experiences and knowledge with the next generation.

  • Education

If you’re passionate about teaching but you’re not entirely sure how to pivot into education, you’ll usually find answers in universities and colleges. If you’re a nurse, for instance, you will find that a BSN is your best course of action in order to gain the skills to teach the next generation of nurses. The same can be said for any number of university courses that tend to take people from the industries in which they have worked, and train them so that they’re able to pass on knowledge effectively.

  • Online Content

You can also choose to go it alone, creating education content online via your social media pages or content-sharing websites such as YouTube. Here, you’ll be able to access a global audience of people searching for inspiration, advice, and tips on how to progress their career in a given space. To make truly compelling and popular videos, make sure you have a professional-quality camera, good lighting, and a microphone. The quality of your videos, and of the script that you write, will generally determine how popular your videos become on these channels.

  • Mentoring

If you’re reluctant to leave your current role but you’re still motivated to support young people, mentoring might be your best bet at satisfying your career objectives. You’ll always be able to find promising young talent to nurture and support as they start out in their career. If there’s a peer support network in your company, that’s the perfect place to get involved, putting aside some time each week to help others learn and progress. You could also take the initiative to set one up yourself, helping other professionals of your level of seniority begin to mentor and support young workers in one-to-ones or in group sessions.

Supporting the next generation of workers is a key responsibility for senior workers, and this article introduces the best ways in which you can pass knowledge on to the next generation.