Robert Half has cautioned that without an overhaul of skills development, the UK could face skills shortages again in the next few years.

While the government has encouraged workers over 50 to end early retirement through its midlife ‘MOT initiative’, and the Chancellor having recently announced that he is exploring a ‘slightly shorter type’ of apprenticeship, Robert Half has argued that these will be a missed opportunity unless employers and government work together to agree and implement significant changes to engage and train this demographic.

Kris Harris, Regional Director, Midlands, Home Counties & East of England, from Robert Half, said, “While we support any initiative aimed at bolstering the UK’s workforce and which helps ease the skills shortages currently challenging employers, we feel that without real change, the actions of today will simply delay the retirement cliff further, rather than resolve it.”

“The current hiring, training and talent management landscape isn’t geared towards older demographics. This is a historical trend that we’ve seen and while we applaud the efforts to encourage over 50’s back into employment, this needs to be underpinned by a thorough strategy,” Harris said.

According to Harris, not only is there a need to support the transfer of knowledge from older workers to those earlier on in their career, but those in the 50+ age bracket also need to be upskilled to ensure they are both working and training to their best abilities.

“The challenge is that there needs to be purposeful, structured programmes to address such upskilling and knowledge transfer initiatives,” Harris added. “And there are some stereotypes that still need to be challenged, such as the perception of apprenticeship considered as more beneficial for those early in their career, rather than as a tool to upskill and reskill workers who require additional development or choose to explore a radically different professional field, such as technology, for example.”

Harris added that employers and government bodies should work closely together to ensure that older workers are provided with the upskilling support that will help them navigate the new world of work and be able to pass on their invaluable expertise and practical knowledge to the younger workforce.