By Emily Toxward

Mature job seekerson the Gold Coast are being left on the shelf at an alarming rate.

In fact, there is such a glut of unemployed workers over 45 that the Australian Government has begged employers to hire the best person for the job, regardless of age.To this end, some 7500 employers have just received an Investing in Experience Tool Kit giving advice on how to better recruit and retain mature workers

Employers can also access training grants of $4950 if they have eligible mature age workers who mentor or supervise Australian apprentices or trainees.While this is a start, there needs to be a change in attitude towards older workers, according to Matt Higgins, a Director with an Australian web site for mature age job seekers.

Mr Higgins’ father, Shane set up www.olderworkers.com.au after being out of work for more than 2 years. He wanted to link job seekers 45 years and older with age friendly employers. In operation for four years,the site has some 900+ employers and over 13,000mature age job seeekrs registered with them.

Mr Higgins said he’s had many desperate emails from Gold Coasters struggling to find work. “Some have been looking for work for months and were having to broaden their search to Brisbane” he said. “I think one of the big problems for older workers is that there ar eno specific recruitment companies that solely deal with mature age people.” Also time-poor employers now rely heavily on recruiters to hire staff and many of these recruiters are very young and out of touch woth older workers”

Mr Higgins said he had heard of young recruiters who didn’t place older people in jobs because they though they wouldn’t be able to handle the physical aspects of it.” In one case, a recruiter overlooked someone over 45 for a job because there was some lifting involved” he said

” said they’re not dead yet and they have 20 years of work in front of them. I think young people are out of touch with the older generation and this can cause a lot of problems.

He said a lot of businesses preferred older staff because they came to them with solutions not problems, they also were able to use their life experiences to help customers make decisions.

Woolworths, The Commonwealth bank and Allianz Insurance were big employers of matue aged people and all posted jobs on olderworkes.com.au

Mr Higgins said there was no substitute for work knowledge,a good work ethic, reliability, on-the-job mentoring, flexibility or commitment to the job that you get from a an older workers

Employers who want a copy of the governments Investing in Experience Tool kit can call 131764 or visit www,deewr,gov,au/expreience

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