Intellect, the trade association for the UK’s IT, telecommunications and electronics industries, welcomes the new employment laws and believes companies continuing to discriminate on the basis of age will put themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the future, as the UK faces an IT skills shortage.
Commenting, Beatrice Rogers, senior programme manager for knowledge economy at Intellect, said:
“In today’s society, companies cannot afford to be ageist. Those who are, are missing a trick. The UK is becoming an ageing population and it is estimated that by 2006, 45 to 59 year olds will become the largest single group in the workforce. Continuing to discriminate will only hinder businesses ability to grow. Not only will they have a much smaller pool of resources to tap into, but they will also be losing out on a large amount of skill-sets.
In today’s knowledge economy, businesses need to invest in lifelong learning and training for their employees. Skills and knowledge are always changing; employees need the tools to adapt to this fast changing environment. This is why age should not be the issue, as lifelong learning is something everyone will need to do in order to remain globally competitive.
However, the UK has a longstanding market failure in skills investment and without urgent action the situation can only deteriorate. To break this cycle, government needs to supply the carrot as well as the stick and provide incentives for companies to invest in lifelong learning and training - particularly to small to medium size businesses. Intellect recommends that to incentivise businesses to invest in skills, government should introduce a Skills and Training Tax Credit, which is simple to understand and simple to apply for.”
