Employers are neglecting to provide training opportunities to older workers

Too many companies are overlooking older people in favour of young employees when considering training opportunities, an international sales training organisation has claimed.

Managing director of Sales Commando, Doug Tucker, has expressed concern over a lack of investment in training prospects for older workers and wants companies to provide staff members over retirement age with more training opportunities.

The number of people in the UK at pension age who are still working has risen to 1.54 million, compared to 753,000 in 1993, and Mr Tucker claimed similar figures are reflected across Europe and America.

Despite the rise in older workers, Mr Tucker has marked a growing trend where companies neglect to ensure older workers have the same further training as their younger colleagues.

He said: “More and more people are working beyond the current ages of retirement and this is a universal trend that’s set to continue as the age of retirement rises in tandem with increasing life expectancy.

“However, what I find mystifying is that older workers are consistently looked over in favour of young employees when training provision is considered.

“This type of discrimination is depressingly commonplace.” Sales Commando provides motivational corporate sales training to companies based on Mr Tucker’s 20 years of selling experience. He wants to see more employers adapt their training policies to reflect the growing number of older employees working into retirement age.

Mr Tucker concluded: “The assumption that older people bring wisdom and experience to a sales role and therefore need no training is a fundamental flaw in the HR training policies of too many companies.

“We’re not teaching old dogs new tricks here. Instead, what I’m suggesting is that we refine experiences and contemporise sales techniques to build on the many attributes older workers bring to a company in a sales leadership role.”