Job center no help with training?

PasturesNew

dugdale wrote: »

Wishface,
It took me less than a minute to extract the following from the jobcentreplus website

Contacting learning and training providers

The better qualified you are and the more skills you have the more likely you are to find work, stay in work and get promoted.
England

The Careers Advice Service provides free information and advice on learning and work A confidential helpline is available from 8am to 10pm, 7 days a week on 0800 100 900 or visit http://careersadvice.direct.gov.uk/
‘Nextstep’ face-to-face services give information and advice on
learning, training, and getting qualifications. Visit http://nextstep.direct.gov.uk/
If you’re not sure where to start with skills, you can call the ‘In Our Hands Helpline’ on 0800 011 30 30 or visit www.lsc.gov.uk/inourhands


What sort of response have you had from the above agencies ?
I would think it eminently sensible that people looking for training would contact the above bodies rather than waste the valuable time of frontline jobcentreplus staff.

I didn't know about these services. I should try them.
The trouble is, the stuff's buried all over the place. I thought Jobcentreplus website was to find jobs - and when you search for jobs on there they're always not what you asked for, or 100 miles away. So you stop even going there and you tell your mates it's pants.

Oldernotwiser

PasturesNew wrote: »

I thought Jobcentreplus website was to find jobs - and when you search for jobs on there they're always not what you asked for, or 100 miles away. So you stop even going there and you tell your mates it's pants.

If the jobs don't exist, they can't put them on their website!

(A levels are now divided into two sections, AS being taken at the end of the first year and A2 at the end of the second. Most colleges wouldn't offer this at evening classes as there wouldn't be the demand. A levels often aren't particularly suitable for adults anyway.)

DCFC79

PasturesNew wrote: »

I must say that I agree with the OP. The whole ins/outs of education is completely beyond me. I've tried many times looking for courses and I can just never find anything that it is possible to start, or anything that's actually useful.

It does seem that if you're in the loop you assume everybody else knows what's what - and if you're not in the loop you have no idea about what's available, where to look, etc.

I have tried phoning a few places for information and you always get the same old nothing out of them. It's a big black hole unless you know "the system"... which I don't.

Training, training, training ... what does it actually mean? Where is it? What's the score? No idea. The Internet can just lead you up the path... I was trying to find A level Maths the other week at evening classes and just got completely overwhelmed with nothingness ... although it does seem there's some new-fangled scheme (which I didn't understand) involving AS and A2 - one source said you needed one before the other, another source said it was the other way round ... and it was all irrelevant as it was only available full-time at a college and not evening classes.

But, basically, unless you live in/near London, or a well-funded area, then trying to find relevant courses is pretty much impossible. There's no one central searching place.

have you tried asking your local college or have you been there and done that

PasturesNew

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

If the jobs don't exist, they can't put them on their website!

(A levels are now divided into two sections, AS being taken at the end of the first year and A2 at the end of the second. Most colleges wouldn't offer this at evening classes as there wouldn't be the demand. A levels often aren't particularly suitable for adults anyway.)

I was looking because I don't know what to do and in looking at degree courses they all said they wanted "A level Maths", so I set out to find it.

Nextstep isn't available where I live, although I could lie to them to see what they suggest/offer.

PasturesNew

DCFC79 wrote: »

have you tried asking your local college or have you been there and done that

The concept of "your local college" is alien to me. I don't know what that would mean. How do you find "your local college"? - also, I might be moving, no idea. So I am just swilling ideas around... but until I work out what to do I am a bit stuck as to what to do ... if that makes sense.

Could easily find a random job 100 miles away and be starting in a month, or not. Anything can happen.

DCFC79

PasturesNew wrote: »

The concept of "your local college" is alien to me. I don't know what that would mean. How do you find "your local college"? - also, I might be moving, no idea. So I am just swilling ideas around... but until I work out what to do I am a bit stuck as to what to do ... if that makes sense.

Could easily find a random job 100 miles away and be starting in a month, or not. Anything can happen.

what area of the country you in, what county, no need to say the town as surely theres a database of colleges so to speak

PasturesNew

DCFC79 wrote: »

what area of the country you in, what county, no need to say the town as surely theres a database of colleges so to speak

I am in South Wales.

I got lead somewhere else on the careers url, to a Welsh site, which ended up with me finding a part-time course that said it was for "HE Credits" - so what are they then?

All these different names and no idea how it all fits together.

Update: I just found one I'd never found before: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/learn/
I've searched for hours before, never found that one before. That's the thing, you can easily miss places ... and who is to say I've not missed another/more relevant place.

PasturesNew

These things really need "a person" to sort out.. somebody that knows what's what. I just got overwhelmed again ... sort of half found a maybe degree course that might possibly be something like what I might want ... but it'd need A level maths again. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/maths/degreeprogrammes/undergraduate/mathsopstats/index.html

So then you think: bin the degree idea, train in statistics, which is what you're really interested in ... mathematical applications.

Bunch of interests ... clueless how to move forward.

DCFC79

That link is for cardiff uni though, depends if you want to do a maths degree or just a level maths, i guess you would need A level maths to do the degree

PasturesNew

DCFC79 wrote: »

That link is for cardiff uni though, depends if you want to do a maths degree or just a level maths, i guess you would need a level maths to do the degree

Yes and therein lies the first issue... if it takes 2 years to do an A level, which can't be started until Sep 09, then 3 years to do the degree ... I'll be that close to retiring that it'd make it look like nuts since the only reason to do it would be for a change of job/better money. It doesn't stack up. I don't WANT a degree, I'd want some qualifications in, say, statistics, that would enable me to apply for jobs that wanted maths/statistics... and this is where education seems to have a big hole: people who don't want basic courses and can't/won't do a degree. There's little middle ground.

It's that middle ground that jobseekers are after.