The Ageing Workforce and Young People

I’ve discovered in our workforce that we have lots of long serving people, who have done 20, 30, 40 years for the company but what will happen when our long timers go?

One of these, Dick Sutton, was clearly unhappy with the way things are, you could sense his frustration that there is a real problem with having the opportunity to pass on skills.

From working alongside Dick and learning from him, I could tell he is a great teacher and incredibly knowledgeable – but we are in danger of losing all this as he’s only 12 months from retirement.

I also heard that young people aren’t interested in working as labourers and as joiners but we need to find people who are.

If we’re to continue to be a success we have to tackle this, recession or no recession or there’s a real danger that as we come out we won’t have the necessary people for the work required.

We’re failing young people in the workforce. I want Dick to work alongside our managers to find the best way to attract, train and hold on to young people.

On the same note, I worked with Les who didn’t have that much experience. He was a temp. But he was exactly what this company needs – young, dedicated, passionate and committed. If he left the company there’s a real risk we won’t get him back.

We need to give people like Les a guaranteed chance to learn and grow with the company. I want to look at creating a scheme to attract young people to the industry and to give them the opportunity to learn hands on skills.

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