Some of the youngest people I know are in their 70s and 80s. Some of the oldest people I know are in their teens, 20s and 30s.

Take Fr Denis Green, a Marist priest. In an earlier life while I studied for the Roman Catholic priesthood - in the 1980s - he was, for a time, my spiritual director. Although even then the holy oils of ordination had long since dried on his hands, he was one of the youngest people I knew.

He was open to the new, innovative, willing to do things differently and to challenge received orthodoxy. He was committed to new ministries and to doing old things in new ways.

Which is why the crazy presumption that age can be a barrier to employment is precisely that: crazy. Prof Alan Walker wrote a report in 1997 for the Dublin-based European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. He identified five key elements of good age management in his report Combating Age Barriers in Employment. The five key elements were: job recruitment; training, development and promotion; flexible working practice; ergonomics/ job design; and changing attitudes within organisations.

Job recruitment: Older workers should have "equal or special access to the available jobs". They should not be discriminated against "directly or indirectly". In non-workplace settings, specific skills training should be considered for older people to improve job seeking. "It could also mean the provision of support to a self-help group of older people designed to promote their own employment and that of other mature people."

Training, development and promotion: Older workers should not be "neglected in training and career development". Learning opportunities should be "offered throughout the working life", while action should be taken, if necessary, "to compensate for discrimination in the past". Policies and practices encouraged by the report to this end include the creation of a learning environment at work, and making training "older-worker friendly".

Flexible working practice: Older workers should be afforded "greater flexibility in their hours of work or in the timing and nature of their retirement". Initiatives such as annualised hours "may be an important method of retaining older people in employment or provide an attractive feature for recruitment purposes". Older people can tend to desire greater flexibility in working practices and "good practice consists of accommodating these wishes as far as is practicable in different organisational settings". Examples offered include "gradual retirement, flexibility over retirement age and the provision of part-time employment (for those under and over retirement age)".

Ergonomics/job design: Job design that includes preventative measures and features that compensate for physical decline are encouraged. For instance, improved job design can eliminate heavy lifting, while improved lighting and seating can be of particular benefit to older workers.

Changing attitudes within organisations: The attitudes of managers, recruiters and employment services staff towards older workers "may be a vital prerequisite to the development of good practice for older workers".

There should be positive initiatives to combating ageism, such as presentation of the evidence of the benefits of employing and investing in older workers. Training in equal opportunities for older people or in their particular needs may be required.

Specific recommendations to make initial progress towards combating age barriers in recruitment and training recommended by the report include:

Examining recruitment practices to see if age is used inappropriately

Reappraising merits of existing exit pathways

Providing flexible employment opportunities, e.g., part-time employment and gradual retirement

Linking training to career-long perspective, including all age groups, with regular training audits and reviews; involve older workers in discussions about training needs.

Some of the employer-specific recommendations made by the report include valuing older workers and restoring their career prospects in the organisation; monitoring organisational age profiles and developing an age-awareness policy.

Combating Age Barriers in Employment, published by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Wyattville Road, Loughlinstown, Co. Dublin. Telephone: 01 204 3100. Fax: 01 282 6456. Email: postmaster@eurofound.ie jmarms@irish-times.ie