DWP Recruitment checklist

• Do focus on the type of skills and experience needed to do the job.

• Do not specify qualifications as selection criteria where they’re not essential for the job. This could exclude older candidates who might have the right skills and experience but didn’t have the opportunity to take the qualifications specified.

• Do not specify numbers of years’ experience (unless this is a legislated occupational requirement). This could exclude younger candidates with sufficient skills or experience to do the job or to offer great potential.

• Do not use language that could suggest age bias — “mature”, “young and energetic”.

• Do not specify or indicate an age group (unless this is a legislated occupational requirement).

• Do not ask for date of birth in the main application, only in an equality monitoring section.

• Do monitor the ages of applicants, short-listed candidates and successful recruits to identify and address any unintended age bias.

• Do consider offering apprenticeships and work experience opportunities to people of any age — younger and older. The government offers additional funding to employers for helping to develop the potential of younger workers at the start of their working lives, whilst older workers offer employers transferrable skills and experience.

Source: Department for Work and Pensions, Employing older workers — An employers’ guide to today’s multigenerational workforce

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/series/age-positive