Age “is just an irrelevance” when recruiting, according the resourcing director at energy giant Centrica.

Matt Berry (left) told Recruiter that Centrica’s aim was to tap into talent across the entire candidate community, and to create a workforce that “ideally reflects our customer base”.

He said: “It’s more about getting a diversity of thought and experience.”

Berry said there would be “nothing stopping” someone coming in as a graduate at the age of 60. “It’s not something that the business would have a problem with.”

However, he said that he would question why the person wanted “to start again” at that point in their life. 

Berry added that a quarter of Centrica’s graduate intake were over the age of 25.