Census Jobs

andyroberts1967

prufrock wrote: »

yesterday when i went to collect my things from my coordinator it was chaos. half the forms had not been delivered to him, and he had not received my ID. subsequently i have had to visit addresses with a blank i.d card. i kid you not i have to flash a white piece of plastic with no name or photo on it!! mostly i am picking up forms from business properties, this is already proving problematic as i have been told to collect the forms back but most of the businesses claim they were told to dispose of them?!!? they are also spaced really far apart making it difficult to plan the most economical routes!

it's going to be a long few weeks i think!!

The one thing I was taught in the e-Learning and the classroom training was if you don't have your ID with you then do NOT collect. I would have refused under those circumstances.

NonGeographicalMan

chaotic_j wrote: »

I had a temporary part time job, 20 hours a week, minimum wage which I gave up for the Cenus Collector job as I was told that I couldn't take a month off then come back to it.

I had the Census call me *yesterday* and offer employment from today as an Early Census Collector so I gave 24 hours notice and I am now waiting to be called by my Coordinator.. not sure if I am working today or not?

It sounds like you must hate your current job to chuck it in for only 6 weeks work as a Census Collector. Can I take it that you have also applied to be a Census Interviewer too but are still waiting to hear back about that appointment?

NonGeographicalMan

andyroberts1967 wrote: »

The one thing I was taught in the e-Learning and the classroom training was if you don't have your ID with you then do NOT collect. I would have refused under those circumstances.

But then you would not get paid. I have done a lot of canvassing for political parties and the only ID we ever have is a party rosette and election literature but most people are perfectly civil on the doorstep despite the potentially contentious nature of our product. I reckon it would be no problem to call on doors for the Census without ID but if you meet anyone who is awkward about it then you just leave them be and move on to the next address.

Of course in an ideal world you might have ID at the outset but that would have required local councils to be asked to do the job instead of a huge faceless corporate monster intent only on making as much money out of the project as possible like Capita.

Lil_Me_2

Just got my job offer through for Census Interviewer starting 9th May (subject to everything else etc). I had my telephone interview 5 weeks and 1 day ago.

zzsr

Hi,

I have my classroom training on friday for a census collector, can anyone please tell me what format the training takes. How much is role play which I absolutely hate and how big the classes are - so terrified.

Many thanks

prufrock

to be fair i am mostly visiting businesses on their business premises. i'm sure households would want i.d. but the businesses are quite happy with my census rucksack and hi-vis jacket! i'm really happy with how nice all the businesses have been, they have been sent residential forms which i am now collecting back off them. so i am apologising for the inconvinience whilst asking questions about potential flats above their premises, shared doors/letterboxes etc. so far they have all been happy to help and polite. this coupled with good weather meant that yestersday was a great day collecting.

i still urge you expecting contracts but without contracts to call the census line and check whether they think they are still awaiting things, like i said earlier if i hadn't called and sorted out the mess i wouldn't be working!

prufrock

zzsr wrote: »

Hi,

I have my classroom training on friday for a census collector, can anyone please tell me what format the training takes. How much is role play which I absolutely hate and how big the classes are - so terrified.

Many thanks

zzsr, it is really nothing to worry about. a lot isabout taking info in (most of which you will remember from your elearning). there's a little role playing. i also hate role playing and being put on the spot and so like you i was fretting, but it really wasnt bad at all. on my training day it was just a few simple excercises that you do in pairs. one pair were householders and then another pair are collectors working together to find the right questions to ask. so your never really doing anything alone. its all about building your confidence up ready to work with the public so theres no criticisms of mistakes etc, the important thing i suppose is that if the instructor has any advice, to take it on board so you can use it when the work starts for real.
my class was about 20 i think, all nice approachable people : )

zzsr

Thank you to you prufrock, have loads of confidence with meeting general public it's just role play in an enclosed room - thanks for the info thou !!

jess_the_cat

Yea friday training for me just mailed my pic and papers ..

DJChris

anothergirlanotherplanet wrote: »

Is the classroom training for Census Collector? It's only half a day, I'd definitely ring Recruitment up and sort it that way. You don't want to be there on the wrong day lol.

Smart casual - Most men at my training session wore shirt & trousers with smartish shoes. Some wore ties, but not all. Some had jeans on. But the majority just went for a shirt and trousers jobby. I'd defo go for that

Thanks, that's what I thought :-)