Left school at 15 in 1967...

LittleVoice

Fash wrote: »

Hi - as usual thank you all for your responses. The adult certificates in literacy and numeracy sound like just the ticket for me LittleVoice and Heartolearn. Any idea where I could do them free of cost please?

Thank you all again - you're wonderful!
Regards

LearnDirect Centres offer the Adult certificates. I tried them a few years ago.

For numeracy I attended for an assessment session - computer marked work, face-to-face talk with a tutor - and then given a CD or online access to course material from home.

Was told I could use a calculator in the numeracy test and to come back when I was ready. (That was fine for me, I didn't want classroom tuition.)

Then on the day of the numeracy test, as we were walking to the room to take the tests the centre tutor said, "oh by the way, sorry I forgot to get in touch again to say that in fact you aren't allowed to use a calculator". Any way you could use pen and paper for rough working and the test was computer marked with instant feedback on completion - and I passed.

I did the literacy certificate at a different centre. That too was computer marked but I had to wait for the result.

AnonymousForObviousReason

Fash wrote: »

Hi - as usual thank you all for your responses. The adult certificates in literacy and numeracy sound like just the ticket for me LittleVoice and Heartolearn. Any idea where I could do them free of cost please?

Thank you all again - you're wonderful!
Regards

Local FE college will give you good advice and they are normally quite flexible if you need to go in for particular hours or days. Also these will be run all the time so you shouldn't have much of a wait.

Literacy and Numeracy are free of charge to all adults (19+), especially to encourage those that don't have them at level 2 (GCSE equivalent), which is a government target.

As you have been made redundant, you are probably on JSA or some other benefit - this means that any course that receives funding will also be tuition free for you - so you only have to pay exams and any material costs. Check with your local college what other courses you can do that won't impact on your benefits. You may as well take the opportunity now because if you aren't on another type of benefit you'd pay £1,000s for a course.

bluetownbarry

Well I can't add anything to the really useful advice already given other than to state my amazement that some employers would overlook your wealth of knowledge and experience over some ridiclous requirement to have two O levels from over 40 years ago!

Whenever I've interviwed potential candidates, with exception perhaps to school leavers with no previous work experience, I'm not in the least bit interested in what qualifications people have.

morganedge

Just say that you have them.
GCSE (as opposed to a masters degree or something) results from 1967 would be so unlikely to be checked!

hcb42

It is probably a gov employer doing a check box exercise as they have 1000 applicants and they have to use these criteria.

I had it once as I dont have ECDL and this was an IT training role - ECDL was not invented when I did computer science at college, and since been GM in charge of IT for one large employer (up to yr2000), and wrote training courses for Excel way before ECDL was invented before that, and had then served most recently in a regional training role...and I said I would go and do the ECDL to tick the box. But I went in the No bin as no ECDL!

wantsajob

helencbradshaw wrote: »

I had it once as I dont have ECDL and this was an IT training role - ECDL was not invented when I did computer science at college

I once had an IT teacher called Miss Bradshaw

Regarding the OP's question employers can pretty much demand what they like unless those demands relate to disability, race, gender, age and so on (unless they have an exemption for some reason). However, even then discrimination based on those factors is rife and it's hard to prove that you were discriminated against, the employer will often just say someone else was better suited for the job and that's the end of that.

I would agree with above, say you have them and if they ask for proof say you lost the certificate

Oldernotwiser

lincroft1710 wrote: »

But there were exams in existence then for secondary modern schools - CSEs and a Grade 1 pass was equal to a GCE O-level. The two exams were merged into GCSEs some years later.

CSEs weren't introduced until the school leaving age was raised in the early 70s. At the time the OP left school you could leave at 15 without taking an exam.

jazzyman01

Incorrect. If what a company is asking for is irrelevant to the job and would be detrimental to a particular group of people, then there would be a potential discrimination claim. In this case age discrimination.

wantsajob

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

At the time the OP left school you could leave at 15 without taking an exam.

The current Government will no doubt raise it again to 18 for a laugh. That way they get to claim they reduced unemployment (by virtue of that you instantly remove 2 years from someone's life in which they could be considered unemployed, and you get rid of those teenage chavs from the unemployment figures).

Strider590

GCSE's were more a measure of how much fun you didn't have at school.

I got an F in English, yet I seem to be able to string a sentence together far better than the next generation with their "how R U? gr8 init" text speak and dare I say far better than most my age who walked away with A's and B's.....

The problem is not the employer, the problem is the HR OR the Recruitment Agency..... It's all about ticking boxes, because they haven't a clue about the job they're recruiting for.