Instead of competing with the fresh grads, he should use his age to his advantage. Learn COBOL, and he'll be in-demand by US big banks/financial/insurance companies for the next 100 years.
I generally agree with this sentiment, though COBOL may be overkill. Anything stable and not latest/greatest probably helps a lot - Java, C#, and of course C/C++. Big boring companies seem to have older people - my company's average age is probably in the mid 40s.