Recommendation 39

If returnerships are to attract older workers and to be effective in bringing them back into the workforce, they will need to offer a decent package of training. They will need to value and recognise the skills that older workers already bring to their new workplace, while seeking to provide practical reskilling. To be effective: a) There should be transparency on whether there will be a job at the end, and what that job will be; b) Organisations should be incentivised in some way, or they may question what is in it for them. Paying less National Insurance, for example on a worker they hire through such a scheme could be one such incentive; Post-pandemic economic growth: UK labour markets 71 c) They should offer flexible working options: people in their 50s value part-time and flexible working patterns and are more likely to take up a returnership and a job at the end of it if flexible working is available in the role; d) The training needs to be sector-based, rather than jobs-based, featuring opportunities to shadow and learn about different roles. This would give people on the scheme the chance to learn about different roles within a sector and not narrow their choice to a specific job at the outset; e) It should include regular careers support and counselling; f) Schemes should be cohort-based, enabling people to train with their own peer group; and g) The scheme, once it is up and running, should showcase examples of people who have joined the programme and successfully re-trained and entered a new role.