Comment
Times of change challenge us all
with Brian Shakes, Over 50s Association
We are blessed to live in what can only be described as interesting times.
Living in our relatively secure society, with pictures of shattering change in other places around the world coming to us mainly via our television screens, it’s easy to overlook some of the dramatic change that’s taking place within our shores.
I look at my young grandchildren and the sorts of activities that occupy them, both at home and at school, and I am amazed at how life has changed for the young in the decades since I was a child. Society and school seem to demand a great deal of these young people; sometimes I think too much.
And at the other end of the scale, society at times seems not to be demanding enough. Too many highly skilled people are left with too little to do that makes use of their skills and experience.
I’m currently interviewing people to fill various roles at the Over 50s Association. These positions and the people who fill them will be important to our growth and level of service provision in the years to come. But once again, I’m amazed at the quality and breadth of skills and experience among mature workseekers out there looking for gainful employment – and gainful use of their energies.
Research undertaken recently by Professor Louise Rolland from Swinburne University on behalf of the employment agency, Drake International, produced evidence that both large and small businesses are still reluctant to hire older workers.
At the same time, the evidence points to younger people preferring to work in larger organisations, leaving small businesses in a bit of a bind when it comes to finding suitable staff. So, there should be openings here for mature people to market themselves and their skills to the smaller business sector.
Some of the canny small businesses are, of course, using our workingconnections job-matching service to find suitable staff. So, one positive change we may well see in the not-so-distant future is much better employment prospects for older workers.
When the Federal Government takes control of the Senate in July, we are likely to see considerable change to the rules governing employment, as well as to those governing welfare payments. The rhetoric, as reported in newspapers such as the Australian Financial Review, is around the Government’s "philosophic shift" from a social security-based model of income support to a focus on providing "welfare-to-work" support.
Somewhere, in all this change, I guess the pieces of the jig-saw – employer needs in a rapidly changing economy, government goals and the needs of would-be workers of whatever age – will come together in some sort of a fit. And then, no doubt, we’ll be faced with more change!
• Brian Shakes is chief executive officer of ARPA Over 50s Association.
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