He knows that "retraining" to start at the bottom in something new is futile because employers frankly do not want a 50 year old intern/trainee.EVEN IF a '50-yer-old trainee' WOULD be considered--it'd only take about 2 seconds to realize that if EVER called back to his $19.95/hour plus bennies job--he'd go in a flash.
THe reluctance to hire has to do with retention, not necessarily capability.
There will be damned little effective retraining. The retrained graduates will be unleased into an easily saturated market.