I’ve never really understood why we’re so quick to use the phrase, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
Our elderly Springer Spaniel was as sharp as a tac right up until his last packet of Rich Tea biscuits, moments before he died, so I’ve always rallied against the idea that I can’t learn new stuff!
So, to hear that Scott Morrison intends to spend $3 million to get 500 older Australians off welfare and into the workforce is encouraging, but ONLY $3 million?
And why were they out of work in the first place at 55?
Before you start sending your gratitude Mr Morrison’s way, he’s also pushing back against pressure to raise Newstart for over-55s.
Social Services Minister, Anne Ruston says the ‘Try, Test and Learn’ program will help the government collect evidence on the best way to get older Australians back on track.
She says the government will focus on trials across four main cities and provide counselling to mature Australian jobseekers and train them to work in the hospitality, aged care and small business sectors.
All very positive you might think and I’m sure there are ‘mature’ Australians out there who will welcome the chance to retrain, but in all honesty as a ‘mature’ Australian, I don’t want to retrain!
Now I’m not being stubborn or living in the past but I’m good at what I do. I have decades of experience AND believe it or not, learn new ‘stuff’ every day, so I find it rather patronising to see Ms Ruston’s comment in The Australian,
“The Morrison government understands mature-age Australians face specific barriers to employment and we are investing in four projects to find new ways to support older people to get a job. We know older people who go on to working-age payments such as Newstart are more likely to stay on welfare for longer, so we are focused on finding ways to support these people back into the workforce.”
Maybe I don’t speak for most ‘mature’ Australians, but I don’t need counselling or support. I need employers or dare I say it, HR recruitment departments to get over the ‘age’ thing!
I’m sure the intentions are good, but the Government’s approach to ‘mature’ Australians being out of work is patronising and quite frankly the amount being spent to solve the problem ‘piffle’!
So, Senator Ruston, go on, back the Sydney-based “Work Work” program to train up women to work in homeless shelters and in kitchen and hospitality, even ‘aged care’, but it doesn’t solve the problem.
The real problem is ageism across the board, for men and women AND it works at the other end of the work life cycle. When you’re starting out it’s, “You’re too young and have no experience, when you’re over 50, ‘We can’t afford to pay for your level of experience’.
I say keep your $3 million and spend it on inflexible employers who think being over 50 means you’re worthless.
Can you tell I’m a bit cross about this?
