Recruitment gets positive about age

Active Life, Mature Tymes and the Internet Corporation are about to turn recruitment on its head. In line with the European and UK initiatives to ensure a positive attitude towards recruiting based on skills and not on age, the two magazines are working with the e-recruitment specialist to launch agepositivejobs.com - a website dedicated to providing equal employment opportunities for all.

The new site, which goes live today, is the latest in a series of successful community-based recruitment portals developed in partnership with e-recruitment specialists the Internet Corporation. It is now a well-accepted fact that a huge wealth of talent and ability is being squandered by policies of recruiting based on age rather than ability or skills. Although some employers are adopting a more enlightened attitude, there is still widespread discrimination against age positive recruitment. The Government is supporting a special Age Positive Campaign and is seeking to persuade major employers of the benefit of reviewing their recruitment and retirement policies.

This campaign has already met with considerable success and there is a growing number of Age Positive Champions that have already committed themselves to adopting a positive stance towards recruiting. However, there is no central focus for recruitment that reflects the needs or aspirations of a maturing workforce.

Agepositivejobs.com will offer a central resource appealing to the ëmature workersí and will provide information on the complete spectrum of recruitment, retraining, job applications and career development throughout the employment marketplace.

The website will carry a broad selection of employment opportunities covering all potential positions, from retail through financial services, public sector and into managerial jobs. New research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation further reinforces the importance of mature workers in employment, highlighting the fact that the number of older ëworkersí will continue rise sharply and also that the number of older workers now in employment is still substantially less than 25 years ago.