MAJOR firms are launching apprenticeship schemes for the over-50s amid fears that unemployed workers in that age group have a higher chance of becoming permanently jobless.
Barclays is launching its own scheme this summer, with new recruits learning banking skills alongside young people who are normally part of the company's apprenticeship programmes. It is not yet clear whether they will receive salaries higher than the normal apprentice wage of £7.85 an hour, or £9.15 in London.
It is understood that another two large firms are due to implement similar schemes in the coming months.
It comes as a report by charity Business in the Community said that over-50s face "significant barriers" finding work after becoming unemployed.
Business in the Community said a million workers over the age of 50 were "pushed out of work" for reasons beyond their control.
Research for the business-led charity suggested that of people aged between 50 and 64 who experienced a change in their economic status, just under a third found work.
A larger number of people aged 50-64 became permanently jobless, either through inactivity or unemployment, than were able to return to work, said the report.
Rachael Saunders, of Business in the Community, said: "This latest research clearly shows that if you're over 50 and out of work, you are a lot less likely to get back into employment, especially compared to your younger peers. This is a sorry state of affairs. Not only are hard-working and highly skilled over-50s workers unfairly punished but we as a country also lose out.
"Urgent action is needed if we are going to reverse this situation and we will continue to work with Government, business and local communities to keep people over 50 in work, and improve the prospects of marginalised and under-used over-50s workers."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article