Ikä, kokemus ja osaaminen työelämässä : työntekijöiden käsityksiä iän ja kokemuksen merkityksestä ammatillisessa osaamisessa ja sen kehittämisessä

Abstract

Osaaminen ei ole iästä kiinniKL Susanna Paloniemen kasvatustieteen väitöskirjan ”Ikä, kokemus ja osaaminen työelämässä. Työntekijöiden käsityksiä iän ja kokemuksen merkityksestä osaamisessa ja sen kehittämisessä ” tarkastustilaisuus. Vastaväittäjänä dosentti Raija Julkunen ja kustoksena professori Jorma Kuusinen.Miten ikä ja kokemus vaikuttavat osaamiseen ja oppimiseen? Susanna Paloniemi selvitti työntekijöiden käsityksiä ammatillisesta osaamisesta ja sen kehittämisestä sekä iän ja kokemuksen merkityksestä työelämässä. Hän haastatteli kuuden keskisuomalaisen pk-yrityksen 43 palvelutyössä ja toimisto- ja suunnittelualalla olevaa työntekijää, jotka olivat iältään 24–62-vuotiaita.

The purpose of the study was to describe the meanings employees give to age and experience in relation to their professional competence and its development. 43 employees from service and information handling occupations participated in 16 semistructured group and individual interviews. The age of the participants varied from 24 to 62 years, with more than half over 40 years of age. In the analysis a phenomenographical approach was utilized.The results show that people give different and ambivalent meanings to age and ageing. Age-conceptions describing the meanings of age could be characterized as age-neutral, age-positive, and age-negative. The dominant view was that age as such is non-significant in professional competence and its development. However, age became meaningful through other factors. Here the most dominant age-conception to emerge was a positive one, linked to the accumulation of experience and personal growth. The meaning of experience was especially highlighted in competence development. Thus the results do not support the stereotypical view that increasing age entails a decline in competence and competence development.However, age was seen as particularly important today, when the competence of workers at different ages is valued differently. Thus, it is the present time that stresses the importance of chronological age and places workers of different ages in juxtaposition. The relationship between age and experience is complex; it is not one that is expressed merely in terms of professional competence. Hence, the focus is on the relevance of experience and its construction over the life-course in professiona growth. Because professional competence is interpretative by nature, the emphasis falls on the role of work and the work community in competence construction as well as professional development. The centrality of work experience gives special weight to the role of practical competence and tacit knowledge in the development of professional expertise.The variety of age-conceptions found in this study exemplifies post-modern conceptions of age by emphasizing the flexibility of age categorisation. The individual-specific nature of ageing together with the context-dependence of competence, challenge work-based learning practices to pay more attention to co-operation between workers of different generations. The questions concerning the situation of older workers in working life call for more holistic and sensitive approaches in research as well as in working life practices