Workforce Innovations: National Council on the Aging

The National Council on the Aging

As Silicon Valley continues its recovery from the recent economic downturn, employers are experiencing a shortage of skilled employees to handle new workload demands. Increasingly, hiring managers are turning to older workers to staff their departments, realizing that these workers bring with them a depth of experience, knowledge, and skills that are necessary for a company to successfully compete in today's complex marketplace. The National Council on the Aging (NCOA) is therefore an important resource for members of the workforce community.

The NCOA provides a diversity of resources and information for employers and older job seekers. This nationwide network–founded in 1950 and comprising over 3,000 organizational members–provides training materials and resources on hiring and retaining older workers. Employers can also participate in the National Older Worker Employment Partnership (NOWEP), a unit of the NCOA that is vested with determining current older worker training and retraining needs and creating a forum for information exchange, advocacy, and discussion.

For more information about the National Council on the Aging, please visit their Web site at www.ncoa.org or contact their San José branch office at (408) 280-779l.