This text is part of the special section Professions and careers
It’s never too late to discover a new vocation. After working for around thirty years within the federal government, Alain Gaudreault reset the clock to begin a career in research and teaching, at an age when others retire.
“I had no desire to play golf or do that kind of thing,” replies the communications expert when asked why he chose to return to studies at the dawn of his sixties, barely one year after retiring from active life. “I didn’t want a passive retirement. What interested me was intellectual life. I had this desire to confront new ideas in an intergenerational context,” adds Alain Gaudreault at the age of 68.
Four decades have passed since his first studies, which saw him earn a bachelor’s degree in communication at UQAM in 1977, then a master’s degree in communication sciences at UdeM in 1983. Once his diplomas were in hand, Alain Gaudreault quickly found his place at the federal level to put his valuable knowledge in communications at the service of different organizations, such as Employment and Immigration Canada, Environment Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada.
Between mistrust and distrust
When he returned to university, after a final mandate as a communications consultant and advisor for the federal government, the recently retired turned to a field he knows well. “I wanted to deepen the apprehension and understanding of a phenomenon that I had observed over several years, namely the close proximity between democracy and media information,” explains Mr. Gaudreault, who made this question the subject of his doctoral thesis.
If this choice seemed completely natural to him, it also raised some questions from certain academics who did not understand what a former civil servant in his sixties was coming to do in a postgraduate program. “I noticed a certain distrust towards me. I was asked to do a propaedeutic, which I agreed to do. But there is a department where they refused to see me, telling me flatly that my diplomas were obsolete,” he testifies.
From practice to theory
For his return to studies, Alain Gaudreault was also confronted with difficulties of another order. “I realized that there were a lot of things that had changed compared to what I had experienced in the 1970s and 1980s,” he says. The university has become enormously bureaucratized over the years and we get a little lost in it, in the forms, the procedures… I would certainly have liked to have had a mentor to help me navigate through all these things -there. »
But more was needed to discourage the sixty-year-old from going through with his retraining project. After having carried out extensive research to fuel his questions on the evolution of the links uniting traditional information media, political institutions and different types of audiences, Mr. Gaudreault defended a 500-page thesis at UQAM, crowned with ‘a mention of excellence. And he now intends to continue his reflections as an independent researcher and teacher.
“It’s also an opportunity for me to make the link between practice and theory,” explains the new doctoral graduate and lecturer at the University of Montreal. “I chose to teach what I have practiced for many years, to prepare students for the world of work. Generally, communication plans are taught in a very theoretical way. I did this for 30 years, so it’s real added value for students. »
A bridge between generations
Building on his successful experience, Alain Gaudreault has a message to convey to all those who, like him, would consider returning to studies at retirement age. “There are challenges, of course, but you shouldn’t be afraid,” he says. In retirement, there is no pressure for money, time or performance. We do things at our own pace. Which is a huge advantage. And if you have any proof to give, it’s only to yourself. It’s the greatest challenge. »
His case is also striking proof that one can satisfy one’s thirst for knowledge at the age of 50 and over, elsewhere than in the famous universities for the elderly, which are increasingly popular with the increase in life expectancy. “Universities must open up to intergenerationality in the same way that they open up to multidisciplinarity,” underlines Mr. Gaudreault. “It is important to make room in classes for people of all ages, and not to herd older people together to learn things in a closed circuit. »
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