Abstract for: Journeyman Years for young modelers – a generation contract approach to secure good mentoring

Given the congruence of crises humanity is and will be facing, there will likely be a drastic increase in the need for good modelers, that without action could not be met by supply. In order to meet this challenge, this presentation suggests to instigate a generation contract that allows young modelers to travel for a number of years working for several organizations using SD modeling that is inspired by the old “Journeyman Years”-tradition that still exists in the crafts in some countries. The idea is that a young modeler could enter a ‘special community’ of modelers that entitles the young modeler to receive training and paid work opportunities while at the same time taking on the duty to ‘pay it forward’ by providing the same services to young modelers once the modeler has reached mastership. This generation contract could a) reduce the drop-out rates, i.e. the proportion of prospective young modelers that quit their SD learning efforts before they have become experienced modelers; b) increase the speed of progress along the SD competency aging chain and c) enhance quality control. What role could the SDS play in this regard?