MSE News: Government launches back to work programme 10 June 2011 at 10:22AM in Employment, jobseeking & training 142 replies 12.2K views

Former_MSE_Helen

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"The Government has launched a scheme to help 2.5m people back to work in the next five years ..."

Read the full story:
Government launches back to work programme

relic

Excellent news, i'm sure there will still be people around to moan about it though ("Why do I have to do this, I should instantly get a job which pays me £30,000 a year to work 8 hours a week!").

Smidster

Call me a cynic but there seems precious little information on how this would work.

Plus to me it misses the point that the main way to get people to work is to have a growing economy where businesses have an incentive to hire. At the moment, thanks in part to the Coalition and BoE, that is simply not the case.

relic

Smidster wrote: »

Call me a cynic but there seems precious little information on how this would work.

Plus to me it misses the point that the main way to get people to work is to have a growing economy where businesses have an incentive to hire. At the moment, thanks in part to the Coalition and BoE, that is simply not the case.

Actually you're right!

We should have a perfect economy, why don't we?

And jobs should be just handed out to the first person who turns up.

saintjammyswine

Agreed, it gives us as providers more freedom than previous projects to deliver training that focuses on people's skills & getting them into employment rather than less relvant accredited training.
It has also removed targets from the JCP advisors.

JimmyTheWig

While I'm sure that there are people out there who need help in getting work, and I'm all for supporting them in doing so, the problem is that there aren't enough jobs.
With many capable applicants going after each vacancy, what's the real point in increasing the number of capable applicants? The only benefit I can see is for the companies - they get a bigger pool to choose from, which may well help push down pay and conditions. Plus a private company gets the contract to run the new programme. Sounds like private companies 2, the rest of us nil.

What's needed, in all areas but some more than others, is more decent jobs. That's got to be the priority, surely?

relic

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

While I'm sure that there are people out there who need help in getting work, and I'm all for supporting them in doing so, the problem is that there aren't enough jobs.
With many capable applicants going after each vacancy, what's the real point in increasing the number of capable applicants? The only benefit I can see is for the companies - they get a bigger pool to choose from, which may well help push down pay and conditions. Plus a private company gets the contract to run the new programme. Sounds like private companies 2, the rest of us nil.

What's needed, in all areas but some more than others, is more decent jobs. That's got to be the priority, surely?

That is a priority, but that's not something that is going to be achieved overnight (or even within the next few years). You have to be realistic with your goals.

You say there are no jobs, but there are. They may not be in your particular skill area, might have to commute, and you may not even want to do them. The jobs are there though.

saintjammyswine

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

While I'm sure that there are people out there who need help in getting work, and I'm all for supporting them in doing so, the problem is that there aren't enough jobs.
With many capable applicants going after each vacancy, what's the real point in increasing the number of capable applicants? The only benefit I can see is for the companies - they get a bigger pool to choose from, which may well help push down pay and conditions. Plus a private company gets the contract to run the new programme. Sounds like private companies 2, the rest of us nil.

What's needed, in all areas but some more than others, is more decent jobs. That's got to be the priority, surely?

I agree but dealing with a lot of candidates, especially the long term unemployed and 'hard to reach' there are so many skills gaps, in particular basic numeracy, literacy & IT skills its scary.

Once the jobs return, and they will, a trained and ready workforce must be a good thing and if some of them get the jobs that are going now then its a bonus.

dseventy

Just make all unemployed people do 4 hours a day supervised job seeking.

Every day (except weekends), they have to turn up, on time, job search (with resources like PCs and helpers), apply for jobs, 4 hours minumum.

D70

Percy1983

But does this tackle those who don't want to work? yes if all unemployed want to work this sounds great, but there is a whole chav culture now where it isn't tha skills problem but an attitude problem.

stephyt23

dseventy wrote: »

Just make all unemployed people do 4 hours a day supervised job seeking.

Every day (except weekends), they have to turn up, on time, job search (with resources like PCs and helpers), apply for jobs, 4 hours minumum.

D70

4 hours job seeking? That would be ridiculous! I used to spend all day looking and refreshing pages until it was just dragging me down. Now I spend about an hour in the late afternoon looking, it means I'm happier and can use my free time more constructively.