By Andy McCue, 21 February 2005 15:45
NEWS Changes to discrimination laws and a skills shortage will force employers to tackle the problem of ageism in IT, according to a leading industry recruitment body.
New laws on age discrimination come into force in 2006 and the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (Atsco) claims employers will have to tread carefully.
Ann Swain, CEO of Atsco, told silicon.com: "It will force people to look at CVs outside of the normal age and I think they will be pleasantly surprised when they do."
But Swain argued that the ageism currently evident in the IT industry – as seen from the results of last year's silicon.com Skills Survey – is more down to "laziness" than anything else.
"I don't think there's any question it doesn't go on but I truly don't think it's intentional. It's just laziness. There's an unwritten perception that anyone who is 55 doesn't fit the bill. It's also very easy for someone to recruit in their own image so they go for someone between 28 and 35 with a decent business suit."
Perhaps a more important driver that will help address ageism in IT is the looming skills crisis facing the UK but Swain warned that older IT workers must ensure their skills are bang up to date.
"I've seen some of the applications from these people over 55 and their skill sets are so out of date. It is a perennial problem in our industry and you need to keep up to date and invest in your skills. Even being a year out of date is too long," she said.
To this end Atsco wants the government to grant tax breaks for UK IT contractors for retraining purposes.
"IT contractors currently cannot claim the cost of training as a legitimate business expense, which can make it very difficult for older contractors to update their skills and remain attractive to employers," said Swain.
Do you think there's a skills shortage in the UK? Take the silicon.com Skills Survey and have your say.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Roger Huffadine
Ann makes a fair point about some interviewees having out of date skills, but it isn't just the very experienced recently redundant 50+ group that present these problems.
Too many Universities have Lecturers who are out of date and this shows up in the project work undertaken by graduates. I have been to, supposed, state of the art presentations at Universities only to discover that the projects are 10 years behind the research and development that is happening in the 'real World'.
Finding the talented amongst all the vanilla CVs is a real challenge.
Most 50+ software engineers have been in the industry since punched cards and the really good ones know more about software and computing than most other people on the Planet.
Only a very secure and well balanced manager is going to have the nerve recruit one of these 'scary' veterans.
2. Tony Nicholson
This Government is a joke, the only problem is the joke is on us. I am a 63 year old CIPS qualified buyer. I have extensive IT experience both SW & HW but have in the last 9yrs found getting employment extremely difficult. I have had the occasional 3mth contract, but in the last 2yrs, nothing. If you are 60+ and are out of work you don't even figure in the unemployed figures, because this government shifts you to the same list as the disabled etc. the 2006 legislation will not change anything, if an employer doesn't want to recruit a 55+ person all he will say is "other applicants fitted their requirement more closely. Whatever you do don't expect this Government to look after anyone but illegal imigrants and MP's salary's
3. anonymous
'Tax breaks' for unemployed contractors - IR35 stopped that!
RE
"IT contractors currently cannot claim the cost of training as a legitimate business expense, which can make it very difficult for older contractors to update their skills and remain attractive to employers," said Swain.
Yes - I most of my 'technology' skills are outdated - I couldn't afford the £18000 per course £8000 to the tutors, and £10000 tax and NI.
Short-sighted not to - well I had to live on the net from the weeks in the year I was employed - and IR35 made sure there was no fall-back cash in the 'company' for the lean times, and we have sure had some of them recently.
Now unemployed or working 'full time' in a fairly low paid jobs - what use is a 'Tax break' with no spare income.
I'll have to continue as an fill-in worker, or unemployed until somebody employs me for my knowledge of business processes/needs tax audit security backup/recovery accounting and legal compliance, at sufficiently high rate that I can take several weeks off and afford the courses to get up-to-date again. –
Recertification in those skills how many weeks training, and how much will they cost – Some advice please?
(Er! I'm not working as a contractor, I will have to pay for those courses out of my PAYE take-home wont I)
Then – with no income including jobseekers allowance ( I will have left my prior job of my own volition) I'll have to find that wonderful new job
And I'm only just over 55 so that's a whole 10 years to find such a job before I get my state pension.
4. paul bliss
how can you possibly police it.
ageism is not just in IT its all around you in everyday life and has become so ingrained that it would be impossible to seperate.
i am 41 yrs old and an experienced project and implementation manager worked over public and retail sectors but because i am over 40 i very rarely get considered,when pushed employers state off the record your to old.
5. anonymous
SO many times, I have seen mistakes re-made, wheels re-invented and blind alleys followed.
EXPERIENCE counts.
Saves time, greater accuracy, quicker understanding of problems and incorporation of the bigger picture.
6. Robb Kimmer
I recently wrote three articles for TechRepublic on ageism in IT.
The first: Ageism? A Good Thing? received the highest number of responses of any topic ever posted on that web site. It is syill in the HOT Discussions section.
The second: Prejudice, cynism in the IT sector? Impossible! also received an incredibly high number of responses.
I received over 200 e-mail messages from the UK and USA in the space of two days. I now have white-finger after replying to everyone.
The law on ageism in the USA has had virtually no impact on ageist attitudes in the IT sector. This sector seems to suffer more than any other.
Perception is often the opposite of fact.
Perception: IT is for the young and thrusting graduate.
Fact: A graduate is the last person to be employed in the network engineering sector and most other IT sectors concerned with network systems. Graduates tend to do better in application and project sectors.
There is no doubt a long and arduous path to be trodden to finally remove the ageist attitudes from my sector of industry. However, it's time to get started. The EU directive will help, but as with all legislation, it's only there to remond and punish. That's a behaviour issue. Attitudes are changed by positive argument and example.
I am look to our biggest IT and telecommunication companies to set the trend. That means a reversal of their current stance.
7. Lynn Craig
When I was 45 I was unable to get a job in IT related work, always the reason was that I was too old, over qualified, female, married with children.
Now I am nearly 60 and have had to survive through self employment which was not my preference. It has been a hard slog.
I don't think anything has changed. We older, well qualified people have seen our hard worked for skills wasted whilst so called 'training' courses flourished. What have these training courses produced? - mostly a perpetuation of dominant corporate requirements such as Microsoft related training certificates.
The UK has and is wasting good people and then telling them to go on working till they drop. Job Centres don't find us jobs doing what we are best at. No, we must retrain to do some cheaper, dumbing down course and be slotted as a square peg into a round hole earning a low wage.
We are not respected, we are continually humiliated and degraded as we grow older. Most of us are pessimistic about the future because of the treatment we have received in the past. The UK is suffering because we were not retained in the workforce and appreciated at a time when we could have given so much.