Hope I work before I get old: Fast Track

Mature graduates may be in for a shock as they enter the job market: these days, discrimination starts at 25.

Consider for a moment the kind of discrimination that today's graduates risk facing in the workplace, and issues of gender, race and disability will probably spring to mind. In reality, however, it is age discrimination that constitutes one of the fastest-growing problems for university leavers. And don't assume that you're immune simply because you're a youthful twentysomething. According to the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services, the definition of a "mature" student is any age from 25 onwards.

This year, no fewer than 791,000 graduates - a quarter of the total figure - will be classed as "mature". And although they are likely to have more to offer employers than their younger colleagues - because, on average, they will have had at least five years' work experience - they are increasingly being ignored by graduate recruiters.

So visible is this trend at Kingston University - which has one of the highest numbers of mature students - that its career service now offers six weekly, three-hour sessions to prepare mature students for the specific obstacles that they may come across in the jobs market.

Even after attending two weeks of the course, however, it is hard to work out why employers would be prejudiced in this way. One woman, for example, won't let anyone get a word in edgeways. A typical older student, she is mouthy, confident and self-assured - not unlike a former classmate of mine at university who often woke us from our slumber, and ignited class debate more often than the tutor. Compared to her younger, quieter and less gutsy colleagues, she seems to have much to offer. So why would an employer have a problem with her?

For a start, from her age - 55. Anyone looking at her CV or interviewing her may assume that she has been away from the job market - perhaps raising a family - and will therefore find it difficult to adapt to the new skills and roles of the Nineties workplace. In addition, potential employers may assume that she won't understand the language of modern work culture: equal opportunities, freelance contracts, positive image. And all this before the employer has even got to her degree grade or subject.

Indeed, these are just a few of the issues identified by Valerie Metcalfe, a higher education career consultant, prior to setting up this Kingston University's unique set of tutorials for mature students. Metcalfe originally became interested in this area back in 1995, when she was given an Enterprise in Higher Education grant to research age discrimination and employment opportunities for mature students. Her year-long project included a review of eight blue-chip companies to explore their recruitment and selection procedures, and interviews with 120 mature students, asking them what they thought were the issues, and how to treat them.

"Confidence is hugely important," she explains. "Mature students have the skills that the employers are hammering on about, but the difficulty lies in getting the student to use the right language - for instance, how to describe their skills, and how to match old skills to those required in the work market these days."

So popular did the course become that Kingston University had nearly 500 enquiries, and, along with Middlesex, had to start withdrawing advertisements. Since Metcalfe's initial research, which led to her writing the teaching guide for these workshops, the London HEI-TEC Network - made up of the higher education institutes and training enterprise companies- has established a pan-London collaborative initiative involving employers and mature undergraduates at six other universities.

The primary lesson for the mature graduate attending such a course is reassessing past experiences in positive terms - in itself no mean feat for Margaret Hill, 36, and Rita Stallard, 53. Upon returning from a holiday some years ago, Margaret found her work life so disappointing that she typed her resignation letter and swiftly signed up on a course that was to change her career completely. Rita, on the other hand, was made redundant from her local government job after working there for more than 20 years. "Something clicked, and, because I felt so bad, I had to do something positive," she explains.

A hopeless task? Not so, says Metcalfe, who insists that both women have shown themselves to be decisive, committed and capable - facts that have them off the starting-block well before the average sloth-like younger student.

Next comes selling yourself. According to Metcalfe, it is essential "to make an individual case to the organisation. And being even a little bit apologetic is not doing yourself any favours. Show no barriers." Again, mature students have the advantage of maturity. The nail-biting years tend to be in the past - something that they can take full advantage of.

In her sessions with blue-chip companies, Metcalfe points out that she found employers believe a dynamic workforce means young people who mix well, are creative and take risks. It would be easy to see how Rita Stallard and Margaret Hill might view this negatively in terms of their own career prospects. But, in fact, they have shown such skills in their degree work. All they need to do now is to prove it in interviews.

Thirdly, says Metcalfe, it is important for mature students to emphasise to employers how they have made big transitions. Many may have moved from a nine-to-five job to a course in which they had to organise their own time. "In addition, mature students often want to begin a different career. So, not only may they face age discrimination, but they also to have to redefine themselves in a new role."

As the graduates analyse the benefits of their age, they have their own issues to add. "Because I am older, I have fewer personal problems, and if I need to talk to my tutor about anything, I have no qualms about it," says Stallard. "This has meant that I've felt confident about changing modules, and have even frequently done so."

Hill agrees: "Other students are so adolescent. Some of them are really flying by the seat of their pants, and many have dropped out. It seems that they get to university and then realise that it is not for them." Although she found initially that it was "hard to mix with young people who didn't have an understanding of what real life was like", Hill was approached by other concerned students about general disruption in class, and was asked to present their case to the head of the college.

Valerie Metcalfe is quick to admit the difficulty in defining "mature students" as a homogeneous group. But, she says, they generally share qualities such as stability and work experience. "They're used to work, and often have good communication and people skills, the ability to juggle a lot of projects at one time - family, work and home - and to relate to young people. It is important to acknowledge the positive."

For Metcalfe, the objectives of the course have turned into something of a crusade. In her spare time, she hands out lists of positive attributes to employers. While older graduates might have more obstacles to overcome, she says, they are equipped. And though getting a job after university may prove to be the most difficult of these obstacles, the worth of completing a degree is crystal clear.

"What the degree has given me is confidence about written work, and I now feel I can substantiate my opinions," says Stallard. "Believe me, for an ordinary working-class person from Camberwell, that is a revelation in itself."