‘You can have the shirt off my back - for a job!’

After no luck with sending off hundreds of job applications, Kirk Waller will head off to London also armed with paper CVs and audio CVs, dropping them off at potential employers while hoping his polo-shirt CV will catch someone’s eye.

Mr Waller, aged 51, said: “I hope people will see that I’ve got off my backside and made the effort to get work.

“The polo-shirt CV was my idea. It cost £25, so I’ve only got one.”

And he jokingly said: “I’ll have to tell the wife to iron it on the inside to protect the wording.”

He added: “I’ve tried all the tricks of old-pal networking, agencies, websites, etc, but from the number of applications I send I get a response of less than 0.5%.

“I detest being out of work and I know I’ve got the experience and talent that I know is of use – all I want to do is work and support my family like I always have.”

From the days of being headhunted for senior jobs in IT and enjoying a salary of £65,000, he has had a rollercoaster ride of emotions since 2001 which has seen him reduced to living off his wife’s salary and tax credits and paying for a rented home with Housing Benefit.

Because of redundancy in 2001 and lack of jobs in IT, the following year, along with his wife Alison, he took over the White Horse pub in Ettington, but the dream turned into a nightmare and they ended up bankrupt with debts of £100,000.

“Business was good for a few years, but I knew it was too good to be true – the smoking ban, rising costs and overheads, ridiculous landlord rents and lack of spending power by customers,” said Mr Waller.

“I had to close the doors in February 2010. I tried to sell the lease for nearly 18 months with no interest. In the end we went bankrupt and we had lost everything we had during the last 30 years.”

Mr Waller, who now lives in Oxhill, near Stratford, has since gained more IT-related qualifications in a bid to improve his job prospects and every week visits PeopleServe in Leamington, an organisation which helps the unemployed, particulary those with professional qualifications, find work.

With his adviser his job applications are analysed and he takes part in brain-storming and ideas sessions and passes on his experiences to others.

But he thinks that he and others could be victim to unspoken age discrimation, saying: “There seems to be a definite barrier at 50 or a worry by employers that people maybe more experienced than themselves and feel threatened.

“Just because I am older doesn’t mean I’ll tell younger employers how to do their job, but if I have skill and knowledge I am more than willing to pass that on.

“Companies should welcome the experience we have to offer.”