Credit: Jeff Gilbert
Maya Bhose decided to change careers aged 60. It was a gamble, but having worked for decades in marketing for big brands such as Nokia and Microsoft, she felt she had a strong CV.
After applying for more than 80 jobs in the charity sector, she was selected for just one interview.
“I felt really demoralised,” says Bhose. “There were some days when I would open my CV and think, ‘you ran a team of 130 people and now you can’t even get an interview for a mid-level job on less than half your old salary’. You start thinking, what’s the point in applying, because you don’t stand a chance.
“I was being made to feel that I had to go into early retirement. I was so sad that my career was going to fizzle out into nothingness. But I refused to let that happen. I refused to accept that I’m past it. I wanted to show all those employers who ignored me, what they missed.”
Bhose didn’t get the job she interviewed for. Instead she ploughed on with an idea she’d had brewing: getting older people back into the workforce with paid internships for those aged over 50.
‘Companies have to report pay equality – but age gets ignored’
Bhose wanted to tap into a growing national movement to help more people over 50 get into the work.
The previous government backtracked on a programme for so-called “returnerships” for over-50s that it was supposed to launch last year, despite ONS figures showing that over 300,000 more people aged 50 and over are out of work now than before the pandemic.
This support is happening in the private sector, albeit on a very small scale. Research from insurer Aviva found that 10% of UK employers have recently introduced support for retaining employees over 50.
Gloucestershire Council, for example, launched its “50/50” challenge last year, encouraging 50 employers to take on 50 people over 50 for 50 hours of work experience.
According to the council, 10 people over 50 have since secured paid ongoing work through the scheme. Savings and retirement company Phoenix Group last year also launched an initiative to recruit more people over 50.
With the help of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, Bhose set up an over-50s internship programme specifically for charities called The Well Placed.
She worked with non-profits including Alzheimer’s Society, Age UK, Age International, Disability Equality Scotland and the British Heart Foundation. All the internships pay the London or UK Living Wage.
Of the six women who went on internships, four were offered paid full-time jobs at the end. It proved Bhose’s conviction that – particularly for older people – getting in front of the right person can give a candidate more of a chance than just a CV and cover letter.
“A lot of charities don’t want to hire from the commercial sector. They see you as a bit of a risk,” she says. “Even if you have the right skills, they think you won’t have the right attitude. So I couldn’t find a way in through applying via job boards. I couldn’t find a way in through charity headhunters. And it was getting in front of the right person that made all the difference.
“People [my age] aren’t getting through to the interview stage, and you need to be able to sit in front of someone and explain why you’re right for that role. The older you are, the harder it is to actually get in front of the right person to have a conversation. The door is shut and I don’t know whether that’s algorithms or internal attitudes.
“Companies now have to report on pay equality and split by gender. But age is the one thing that time and again gets completely ignored.
Credit: Paul Grover
‘I have another 20 years of work in me – why not start a new career?
After spending the past 20 years fitting in freelance projects around raising her two children, Caroline Heartfield is now keen to get back into full-time work. The 50-year-old completed a six-month internship at Age International this year, through The Well Placed.
“I’ve just got to a stage of my life where I wanted to do something more meaningful,” she says.
“My daughter has just finished university and my son has just finished his GCSEs, which is why this is the perfect time for me. I’m not doing the school run any more. I haven’t got the school phoning me because they’re sick,” she says.
“They’re sorted, so I don’t feel like that extra pressure is there any more. I feel I have another 15 to 20 years of work left in me – so why not start a new career?”
A lack of confidence in her skills often meant Heartfield would hold back from applying for roles, but she found the internship helped her with that. And rather than being intimidated by her younger, more senior colleagues with more industry experience, she came to admire them.
“I wasn’t scared to ask younger colleagues questions, because they knew what they were doing in their roles,” she says.
“It felt like an exchange, because I was able to give them some insight into how I might have done something, with the knowledge that I’ve got. My thoughts were always taken into consideration – it was a two-way conversation and I was never quietened. I was never once asked to make the tea.”
Credit: Christopher Pledger
‘I’m not embarrassed to say I don’t understand something’
Stella Beale, 62, spent six months as a fundraising executive at the Alzheimer’s Society, and has since secured a full-time role in that team.
Like Bhose, she was looking to move out of her corporate role and into the charity sector – even if it meant dramatically cutting her pay from her previous job as a senior marketing director.
Beale, from London, also quickly got over any fear of asking potentially silly questions. “I’m not embarrassed to say I don’t understand something, because what’s the point in me telling you I do, when I don’t? Equally, I was able to spot where I could use my skills, so it was a very open transfer.”
Beale also built a strong bond with her line manager, who was half her age. “He is just starting out in his management career, but he was more experienced than me, so I couldn’t help but for him to lead, as he’s better at his job than I am, in that job.”
Bhose believes that this is just the start of a wave of people over 50 – particularly women – wanting to extend or return to their careers and is now taking applicants for the next round of internships.
“I can see in the applications that are coming through already where people’s confidence has been knocked. This country won’t have economic growth unless this age group are allowed back into the job market to use the skills that they spent three decades developing.
“People should be able to choose when to stop their paid work; they shouldn’t be forced into that situation. And that’s happening far too often now.