EFA creates "age-neutral" job application form

In a bid to tackle age bias in recruitment, the Employers Forum on Age (EFA) has created an application form which excludes information concerning age – not just date of birth, but all chronological information.

The EFA says age is often one of the first details that a candidate is required to supply when applying for a job, and is often used “to reduce a pile of application forms or CVs to a more manageable level”.

It concedes that employers use a candidate’s career history as a “yardstick against which to gauge loyalty, commitment, progression and unemployment”, but argues that, if age discrimination is ever to be tackled, “we need to go back to basics – and this means asking ourselves if a career timeline really provides the answer to these questions”.

A copy of the form can be downloaded from www.efa.org.uk