Forty mature age job seekers and those with a disability will be helped to find work in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry under a new Australian Government project.

The Employment Innovation Fund (EIF) pilot project will develop a recruitment model to attract mature age job seekers and those with a disability.

If successful, the model could be used across the ICT industry as well as other sectors.

There is little recruitment of mature age workers and people with a disability in the ICT sector.

A recent study of 7500 companies by Hudson recruitment found ICT firms were the least active in recruiting mature age workers and needed to do more to attract these groups

The IT Skills Hub – a group of organisations which develop ICT skills in the Australian workforce and community – will work with employers on the $70,000 project.

Members of the IT Skills Hub include Microsoft (its Australian managing director Steve Vamos is involved), Telstra and Oracle.

The project is expected to run for six to nine months.

Once the recruitment model has been established and volunteer groups and employers signed up, the project will approach local Disability Specialist Job Network members (for disabled clients) and other Job Network members and Transition to Work providers (for mature age clients) to become involved.

The $4 million Employment Innovation Fund was established in July last year to support innovative approaches to specific labour market issues and increase employment opportunities.

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