Ageism widens leadership skills gap

Workers aged over 50 are routinely being overlooked for promotion despite possessing the essential knowledge and experience needed to fill the ever-growing leadership skills gap in the UK, according to a new released today by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM).

?Untapped talent: Can over 50s bridge the leadership skills gap??, which has drawn from a survey of over 1,400 UK managers, reveals that many organisations wrongly assume that staff over 50 lack the desire to develop and progress into more senior leadership roles.

ILM found that managers rated team members aged 50 plus far lower than younger age groups for their keenness to learn, develop and progress, scoring them at 46% for these attributes, compared to 67% for Generation X (born 1965?-1976), and 79% for their younger millennial colleagues (born 1977?-1997).

In fact, the over 50s rated their own keenness to develop at 94%, higher than the youngest millenial age group surveyed, who trailed in last place with 87%.

• 61% of managers say their over 50s workers have low (20%) or very low (41%) potential to progress
• This is despite the over 50s scoring higher than younger workers for occupation specific knowledge and skills (85%) and understanding of customers (78%)
• Over 50s rate themselves poorly for potential to progress (46%)
  
  

The study also found that older workers? confidence and career targets are lower than their younger counterparts. Despite a keen desire to advance, fewer than half (46%) of over 50s managers expected to progress into a more senior position within the next 3 years. This was compared to 76% of millennial managers and 62% for Generation X.

Department for Work and Pensions figures show that an estimated 13.5 million jobs will be created over the next 10 years, over which time only 7 million young people will enter the labour force. This is leaving the UK with a skills gap – especially within leadership and management positions.

Read the full report at bit.ly/1KSrL3v