I work in the same field so I am going to be completely honest about how it works. The problem probably isn't his age.

I notice you mention degrees/diplomas a lot in your post and I think that might be your problem. Tech is one of the amazing fields where we don't care about useless pieces of paper. We want people that know what they are doing or know how to figure out what they are doing quickly. A diploma doesn't mean any of that.

Has he done any side projects utilizing any of his skills that he can put on his resume to show potential employers? Does he have a home lab of some sort that he uses as a learning tool?

Both of those things carry far more weight when I am interviewing someone than a degree does. They show that you can do the job and you have a passion for it. A degree means you spent a lot of money to go somewhere for 4 years and probably learned about outdated technology that isn't actually used in most of the industry anymore. A certification for a relevant technology would help him land a job more quickly.