Never too late: Apprenticeship training late in the career as a way out of age discrimination

In many countries, age discrimination appears to be driven by negative perceptions that recruiters stereotypically hold about older candidates’ technological skills, trainability, and flexibility. Based on multiple theories, we hypothesise that training programmes might mitigate these ageist stereotypes and thereby improve these candidates’ recruitability. We test this pathway out of age discrimination by designing a vignette experiment in which professional recruiters assess the recruitability and human capital perceptions of fictitious candidates varying in age and (willingness for) participation in apprenticeship training at older ages. Our results demonstrate that candidates indicating their (willingness for) participation in such training to obtain relevant work experience are more likely to be recruited than candidates without such experience, regardless of their age. Moreover, recent participation also mitigates age discrimination, as the premium it yields is higher for candidates aged 55 and older. Nevertheless, no robust differences in perceptions are observed.