New research by Monash University has found attitudes towards older workers are changing for the better, and a lack of appropriate skills is now the main barrier to employment for over 55s.

Professor Philip Taylor told the Sydney Morning Herald that he’s never seen employers so willing to hire older workers in his 20 years of research in this area.

About half of public sector employers and 40 per cent of bosses in the private sector are currently seeking workers 55 years old and over to solve labour shortages, according to a survey of 600 larger organisations.

”We had expected that, on the back of the economic downturn, employers would be less favourable toward older workers,” says Professor Taylor.

“This is a significant and surprising shift.”

But as Professor Taylor told ABC News, the same employers were not prepared to help train older workers because they weren’t seen as “long-term prospects”.

Migrant workers certainly weren’t seen as the answer by public or private sector employers, with less than a quarter of them looking at migrants to fill gaps in the workforce.

With Australia forecast to reach ‘full employment’ in the next couple of years, it’s right that older workers should be looked at as a valuable source of knowledge and wisdom in the workplace. Hopefully employers together with government will provide the training required to harness this potential to its full capability.

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