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“Employment in the ICT sector is heavily skewed towards the 25 to 44 age groups”, says the latest publication produced by the “mature @ eu” project, in which UNI IBITS has been actively engaged.

Says UNI’s Gerhard Rohde: “There is evidence that recruitment in the industry is discriminatory in a sense that recruitment procedures are heavily biased towards young males with no family responsibilities, who are mobile and prepared to work long hours without overtime compensation.”

Against the demographic development, this is a risky strategy. In the future the supply for the ICT industry will get slimmer and slimmer as there are fewer young people entering the labour market and of those, fewer are inclined to go for technology, physics or mathematics.

Eleonora Hostasch, chair of the European Commission’s expert group on demographic issues says: “Mobilising the full potential of older people is a key response to demographic change.”

A war for talents will not be sustainable. Innovative human resource strategies and age neutral recruitment policies will have to be applied in order to cope with the emerging ICT skill shortages.

Belinda Pyke, Director of DG Employment, says: “The European Union has put in place legislation to remove age discrimination in employment. This is a vital step, but it will not change attitudes and stereotypes overnight.”

The “mature @ eu” project, financed out of the EU Leonardo program and coordinated by the Vienna, Austria, based Centre for Social Innovation, has developed a comprehensive e-learning platform for HR managers to facilitate age neutral recruitment. Further the website of the project contains a “toolbox” with downloadable material and a research report analysing the situation of older employees in IT and ways to improve the demographic mix of IT companies.

The recent brochure is available in English and can be ordered from the UNI secretariat or from the download link directly.