Over-50s unemployment is an increasing problem. In fact, the increase
in the unemployment rate for this group is growing twice as quickly as
the rate for the widely lamented 18-24 year olds.
My colleague, Kay Gorman, and I founded skilledpeople.com when we
retired. We had amassed a wealth of invaluable skills and experience we
realised was of most value to SMEs and start-ups. Both can benefit
enormously from instant experience and know-how.
We believe that the over-50s can help galvanise the economy if small
businesses know they are available and how they can connect with them.
The concept behind skilledpeople.com is a particularly good one for
SMEs, because small business owners simply don’t have the time or
resources to train poorly educated young people.
The over-50s come ready packaged with a quantifiable skill base, a
good education and a willingness to put their experience to good use.
Unfortunately, the issue of the unemployed over-50s has gone largely
unnoticed by the press. Youth unemployment, it would seem, has taken
precedence and as a result in the public mindset. However, the problem
is real and it’s getting worse. There are many initiatives to
get Britain’s youth working but besides skilledpeople.com I can’t easily
name any for the over-50s.
In February, Office of National Statistics unemployment figures
revealed that vacancies and skills demand is increasing. It is well
documented that one of the biggest hurdles facing SMEs and start-ups is
finance. The feedback we have received from our site members is that
this directly affects recruitment, with many small businesses unable to
afford salaried employees despite needing their skills.
Skilledpeople.com has a reservoir of talent that SMEs can tap into at
very economic rates. We offer a unique service supporting both business
growth and getting experienced people back into productive employment –
a true “win-win”.
Our ‘Project Assignment’ service covers short project work (1-20
days), where SMEs can take advantage of the skilled specialist services
of candidates to help them with activities such as HR, marketing and
business planning, but without employing them full time. This makes it
viable for small firms to get the right skills at low costs.
Small businesses need support if they are to help the UK out of
recession. We are also in danger of losing a tremendous amount of
knowledge and experience from professional people aged 50-plus who find
themselves out of work.
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