By Gaby Allheilig
“Retirement is often experienced as a bit of a guillotine: you spend years working hard to build up your knowledge – and then, from one day to the next, it’s as if this knowledge is no longer needed. That can be very frustrating,” says Urs Balsiger, Head of Finance and Personnel at CDE. Besides, the loss of know-how usually generates high costs for the employer. Meanwhile, young researchers face the challenge of acquiring numerous non-scientific skills and building up a functioning network of relationships.
An intergenerational tandem for knowledge transfer
So why not create a win-win situation? As part of a concept for equal opportunities, diversity, and career advancement of young scientists, CDE developed the idea of an intergenerational tandem. “We started in 2015,” recalls Lilian Trechsel, now 36, who works as a research associate at CDE. She finds the exchange with her older colleague very helpful: “I gained valuable experience in preparing a grant application for an EU project and obtained insight into projects in a region that was previously unknown to me. In addition, through Skype meetings organized by my tandem partner, I made initial contacts with important cooperation partners in Central Asia.”
“The chemistry has to be right”
And it works both ways. Lilian Trechsel’s tandem partner, 63-year-old Eastern Europe specialist Heino Meessen, says he has expanded his knowledge in the use of tools for modern teaching. “I also learned a lot from Lilian about visual communication – such as presentation design,” he adds with a chuckle. Both of them agree that the tandem system is enriching, not least because “two people with different career backgrounds and professional experience, and of different ages, can learn from each other outside of a specific project and ‘hierarchy’”, as Lilian Trechsel puts it. “What’s important is that the chemistry is right.” This was not a problem in their case: “Both Lilian and I are enthusiastic about mountains, and we’re on the same wavelength in other respects too,” says Heino Meessen. Plus, they both work part-time and share the same attitude to life of “making work and family compatible.”