To remove disguised age discriminatory practices from recruitment procedures.

mmmm agree with you and have experienced it myself, but un fortunately it is a fact of life and can not do too much about it, I have accepted it, I have been young once and was sort after but now I am older and not so much. It is life I am afraid. Don't let it get to you.

I have now decided to be proud of my age and have a demeanour about me commanding respect due to my age --it works!!!!!

As many members know, I have been job hunting since being made redundant in 2012, I have had a couple of short lived jobs since then, but I feel that March 2012 was when I last had a "proper" job.

I agree with a lot of your points, these tend to apply to the dreaded application forms in the main. Applying with a CV & covering letter means that you can keep it short!

My own CV only covers my last 2 permanent employments, but these account for a 17 year work history. I was recently faced with one of the forms you mention, I phoned the company and explained to the head of HR that whilst I was quite happy to fill it ALL in, my most recent jobs covered 17 years, would that do or did she really want the CV equivalent of War & Peace?

The Apprenticeships are a different matter, if you look through the jobs listed on DirectGov, yes, there are some apprenticeships listed, but these are often "proper" Govt. backed & funded apprenticeships. "Trainee" however, can be a different matter!

I am 55, and some potential employers (esp. the younger ones) seem to think that I am just looking for something to get me out of the house, er no. When they ask "what motivates you?" I always reply that the size of my mortgage keeps me pretty focussed. They also seem to think that I will be retiring soon. Wrong, I don't get a pension until I'm 66, so that gives me 11 years of productive work life.

I try to give them the positives, and sometimes I'm quite blunt (perhaps that's why no-one has taken me on

1) I am extremely unlikely (to put it mildly) to need to take maternity leave
2) I have worked before and actually know that you have to turn up and contribute
3) At my age (yes, I used the "A" word) I'm not going to treat this job as a stepping stone in order to boost my CV before I climb up the corporate ladder, been there, done that, got the T shirt AND shrunk it in the wash!

I do take offence at those adds that say "come and join our young and vibrant team" and I do actually take the time to report them! Bastards!

Sorry to rant, yes, you are right on some scores!

I was 'retired' by the medical practice I worked for as their rules said that anyone reaching 60 had to retire [they cant do that now]. It was put into place because the feeling was that GPs were burnt out by then. I wasn't a GP but a medical secretary. but the rules didn't differentiate on that. So despite years of experience and a good work ethic I was out of a job.
However, Waitrose took me on. I am now an internet picker and really enjoying working part time. Other then offers of promotion, which make sense, I am treated like every other member of staff by management and colleagues alike. Our oldest member of staff is 75 years old.

Dear phoenix I thank you for making me laugh, by what you say to your potential employers!

I actually laughed out load..

Did you know that there is a princes enterprise for 50 year olds and over--they help with advise and finance to set up your own business

dorse what is an internet picker?

Thanks eliza I do have my moments!

I would guess that an internet picker is one who goes around the store putting together the shopping for those who have ordered on-line?

I think internet pickers work in dark supermarkets, not supermarkets without lights but supermarkets without customers built specifically for internet shopping and staffed, presumably, by internet pickers.

I was made redundant in my early 50s and after a year of unsuccessful job hunting, being fortunate to have an early occupational pension I decided that if no-one wanted to employ me because of my age, I would work for free so I worked as a volunteer home visitor for Age Concern (now Age UK). I did this for over 10 years until the scheme ended because of lack of funding. During that time I sorted out disability and other benefits for 100s of older people as well as dealing with a host of other problems.