Comment
Working together for mature age job solutions
On the eve of her departure overseas to take up a Churchill Fellowship, VERONICA SHEEN, COTA's deputy director, has released the evaluation of her pilot project on educating mature age people about the modern Australian job market.
Many mature age people have been in the one job or occupation for many years and when they are retrenched they often do not understand that they face a very different world of work. Many organisations and companies have downsized and stripped out layers of middle management. There has been strong growth in part time, casual and contract work and slower growth in full time jobs.
Mature age people need to be well equipped to manage these changes. Otherwise, they pursue futile job search strategies that only lead to anger, disappointment and frustration.
The project was undertaken for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, and we held workshops in Adelaide, Bundaberg, Brisbane and Melbourne.
The project was successful because it tapped into the expertise of a wide range of organisations including:
o State Councils on the Ageing
o National Seniors Association
o Don't Overlook Mature Expertise (DOME)
o ARPA Over 50s Association
o Mission Employment
o Salvation Army Employment Plus.
These workshops have provided a useful new service for mature age job seekers in bringing them up to speed on the opportunities and the barriers in the labour market both nationally and at the local level. They now need to be extended nationally and work in with other more individualised services for mature age job seekers.
More help needed
The report shows that there is a considerable need for more extensive assistance for mature aged people in the job market, covering employment services, information provision, and employer practice.
My report has recommended that the Government needs to provide:
– more, and specialised, employment services for mature age people, especially in job placement, training, job search activities, mentoring, support and counselling;
– personalised and group-based services, provided by mature age staff who are trained specifically to assist and support mature age job seekers;
– training programmes that take into account the learning styles of mature age people, and which recognise prior experience and learning;
– an education campaign directed to employers to encourage their employing mature age people, which is linked to the introduction of Federal Age Discrimination legislation;
– regional employment strategies for older workers, with strong local component and involvement in employment assistance programmes;
– immediate access to employment service assistance for all mature age people, including those not receiving income support payments, before they become long term unemployed and deplete retirement savings.
o Veronica Sheen has recently been awarded a Churchill Fellowship. She will be looking at how overseas countries manage mature age employment issues as part of her Churchill Fellowship studies. On her return to Australia she will use this information in the second stage of the project which will occur in 2003.
