Working Late

Strategies to Enhance Productive and Healthy Environments for the Older Workforce

A collaborative research project funded under the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme

Read more »

Third TAEN Debate: Age, Engagement and Employability

October 4th, 2012

Yesterday TAEN hosted their third debate to discuss the statement:

Do young people lack the “get up and go”? Should older workers have “got up and gone”?

Guest speakers were:

  • Chris Ball – The Age and Employment Network (TAEN) CEO
  • Vicki Baars – National Union of Students (NUS) Vice-President and member of the National Executive Council
  • Katerina Rudiger – Skills and Policy Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
  • Matthew Tinsley – Economics and Social Policy Research Fellow at the Policy Exchange, and author of ‘Too Much To Lose: Understanding and Supporting Britain’s Older Workers

It was a great chance to discuss research findings, and ideas for further research into age, engagement and employability. Researcher Ricardo Twumasi summarises:

“One of the theoretical perspectives behind the question put forward in the debate is that younger and older workers are competing for a finite number of jobs in the employment market, each of the guest speakers challenged this view in their own way with their speeches. In order to consider the problem of underemployment in a more cohesive manner its important to reflect on the idea that having more individuals in the labour market is good for employment in general. Which can therefore increase employment for all groups regardless of age. The economy is too complex for it to be considered as older vs. younger workers competing for a finite pot of jobs.”