It seems that the job market is approaching a generational crossroads. Rosetta Thurman reports that the idealistic baby boomers that once started the non-profits that
blossom today are leaving their jobs to retirement. But who is going to replace
them? Generation Y perhaps? (The Internet generation, born roughly between 1976-2000).
They are young, ambitious, highly selective and are now gradually entering the
job market for the first time.
almost double the entire U.S. population. In America however, Generation Y
number about 70 million, still a sizable group. Recent news reports from the
Iowa Caucuses indicate that these youngsters are a
force to recognize,
virtually handing Barack Obama the momentum in the U.S. presidential race.
These echo boomers are techno sawy, they demand change, they are financially smart and they want
to make a difference from day one. At a glance it may seem that the growth of
social enterprises and entrepreneurship should explode any day now, and I
admit, the environment is ripe for harvest. It seems though that the harvesters
are sleeping and unless they act on the momentum the Gen Yers will shift their
attention somewhere else.
Idealism is no longer a word only associated with hippies
and environmentalists but rather a powerful influence on today’s youth.
However, idealism by itself normally does not survive the transition into adult
life unless it becomes real. It is kind of like believing in Santa Claus down at
the local mall; one day your bound to catch him during a smoke break in the
back alley. For many young people, idealism works the same way. You grow up and
realize that it was all a scam and that you cannot matter or make change in the
big picture.
In our day and age, secondary schooling normally work as
this wake-up call. For hours on end I learned about hunger and drought, the
AIDS epidemic, war and terror, ethnic strife, climate change and poverty. At
first I was determined to fix it all, until one day I gave up, thinking I
couldn’t do anything that would make a difference. In schools, students are
shown the big picture but never the solutions, which are almost always small
and local. Schools should of course continue to teach reality, but someone has
to show young people that there are solutions – and that’s where the third
sector comes in!
I am lucky to intern at SSE where I get to witness first-hand the many local solutions that exist. The
social sector has the potential to grow immensely now that GenY is growing up,
but only if it provides opportunities for idealism to continue to exist in today’s
brutal reality. The sector must reach out to GenY and show young idealists that
solutions are real, and many. The first step in this process should be to
transform idealism from an abstract term into tangible, visible and practical
examples. Luckily for us, idealism doesn’t take smoke breaks and doesn’t wear a
fake beard. The question remains however, how can the sector reach out to the younger generation, now ready to enter the job market?
