Work Programme

LadyMissA

donnajunkie wrote: »

the cynical side of me says be careful with this. they may want access to the set up email address to check up on you. so if they bring this up just say you already have one. if they wont leave it there just say all the companies you have applied to and all the agencies you have sent cv's to have the email address that you already have and will contact you via that one. if they still insist then just do the minimum required to keep them happy in the email they set up and do everything else as normal in your own email address.
of course i could be wrong but i remember one time when i was asked to apply for a job with my email address my adviser was sat there with me and wanted to watch me type in my password. she didnt like it when i asked her to not watch me type it in.

Well yeah like you say I have a professional email address and its my name @ my ip .com and like you say its on all my online profiles so I am not setting up another if they want to check on me.

donnajunkie

LadyMissA wrote: »

Well yeah like you say I have a professional email address and its my name @ my ip .com and like you say its on all my online profiles so I am not setting up another if they want to check on me.

its just occurred to me if they set one up for you and know the password but dont say they must be able to access the email then later on while at home just change the password.

baybeebug

donnajunkie wrote: »

the cynical side of me says be careful with this. they may want access to the set up email address to check up on you. so if they bring this up just say you already have one. if they wont leave it there just say all the companies you have applied to and all the agencies you have sent cv's to have the email address that you already have and will contact you via that one. if they still insist then just do the minimum required to keep them happy in the email they set up and do everything else as normal in your own email address.
of course i could be wrong but i remember one time when i was asked to apply for a job with my email address my adviser was sat there with me and wanted to watch me type in my password. she didnt like it when i asked her to not watch me type it in.

You really think they have time to check up on you!!!

Grow up!!

donnajunkie

baybeebug wrote: »

You really think they have time to check up on you!!!

Grow up!!

people have said they have to bring jobs they are willing to apply for to show them. people have said they have to bring print outs of all the jobs they have applied for to show them. so its not totally impossible that they could log in to an email account to see what jobsearch has been done. i acknowledge that only the w*****s might do it.

LadyMissA

ok got the letter today confirming next week. 9am and expect to be there THREE HOURS!! What on earth will we doing for 3 hours? Letter says meet the consultant, have an assesment (what if I can spell my own name? lol) and do job search activities. Says fares will be reimbursed but you have to have proof but I told the guy on the phone I have an oyster card and he said they will know the cheapest fare so lets hope I get it or I can't go again as you can only top up the Oyster £5.00 at a time but its gonna cost me £2.60 there and back and to get there twice will take me over the £5 so I in fact need £10 on my oyster card to get there and back twice and I have £0.07 in my purse and going to have to borrow £5 off someone , what joy
Oh yeah and if I can't get the money on my oyster card I will end up paying £2.40 there each way and only be able to claim £1.30 each way.

BexInLondon

LadyMissA wrote: »

ok got the letter today confirming next week. 9am and expect to be there THREE HOURS!! What on earth will we doing for 3 hours? Letter says meet the consultant, have an assesment (what if I can spell my own name? lol) and do job search activities.

They don't know you (yet) - the three hours is so they can actually get to know you. I imagine if it was only a ten minute appointment you'd be equally miffed at having to travel all that way for so short a time, and that they couldn't possibly identify your needs in that time.

On the one hand you seem to be complaining about them getting your details from the job centre, yet on the other hand you're annoyed that they don't psychically know your literacy level. As others have said here - give it a chance. You might go along and have all your worst fears confirmed, or they may actually get you a job!

In reply to others on here who have said that providers can't get interviews for customers, this isn't true. Decent providers will have a reputation in the area and will be able to get you interviews for jobs that aren't advertised. Of course standards will vary massively and that is a shame, but if you're lucky enough to be referred to a decent PA at a decent provider they could make a real difference to you. If you genuinely are very work-ready and have no howlers on your CV and don't need any help in interviews, a good provider will really focus on putting opportunities in front of you. However you must realise that some people who have been out of work for a while need a lot of help with what you might consider to be 'the basics', and no-one knows before you walk in the door what you will need.

LadyMissA

BexInLondon wrote: »

They don't know you (yet) - the three hours is so they can actually get to know you. I imagine if it was only a ten minute appointment you'd be equally miffed at having to travel all that way for so short a time, and that they couldn't possibly identify your needs in that time.

On the one hand you seem to be complaining about them getting your details from the job centre, yet on the other hand you're annoyed that they don't psychically know your literacy level. As others have said here - give it a chance. You might go along and have all your worst fears confirmed, or they may actually get you a job!

In reply to others on here who have said that providers can't get interviews for customers, this isn't true. Decent providers will have a reputation in the area and will be able to get you interviews for jobs that aren't advertised. Of course standards will vary massively and that is a shame, but if you're lucky enough to be referred to a decent PA at a decent provider they could make a real difference to you. If you genuinely are very work-ready and have no howlers on your CV and don't need any help in interviews, a good provider will really focus on putting opportunities in front of you. However you must realise that some people who have been out of work for a while need a lot of help with what you might consider to be 'the basics', and no-one knows before you walk in the door what you will need.

so its a literacy test? I have a an O Level in English so I don't think I need to be tested.

No howlers on my CV and over 17 years experience in accounts 5 at my last job.

Yes I have been out of work a while as I can't get support to go to agencies who want to put my CV over to jobs.

You say 'have a reputation in the area and will be able to get you interviews for jobs that aren't advertised.' The provider is not even local and besides I am not looking for a local job I am looking to work in London as its take 20 mins to get to Tower Hill London and 1 hour to get to where the provider is.

EndlessStruggle

Warning: rant imminent... I just got back from my first interview, apparently I'm doing too much voluntary work, my course is taking too much time away from "job searching" (at 4 hours a week!)and at least 3 hours a day isn't enough for a job search to look at the same jobs over and over again, when there is about 12 new jobs a day here to look at so filtering them out am lucky if there is 1 or 2 a day. He didn't seem to think Work experience and Training/Education were more important than staring at a blank computer screen or having free time.

claire16c

LadyMissA wrote: »

ok got the letter today confirming next week. 9am and expect to be there THREE HOURS!! What on earth will we doing for 3 hours? Letter says meet the consultant, have an assesment (what if I can spell my own name? lol) and do job search activities. Says fares will be reimbursed but you have to have proof but I told the guy on the phone I have an oyster card and he said they will know the cheapest fare so lets hope I get it or I can't go again as you can only top up the Oyster £5.00 at a time but its gonna cost me £2.60 there and back and to get there twice will take me over the £5 so I in fact need £10 on my oyster card to get there and back twice and I have £0.07 in my purse and going to have to borrow £5 off someone , what joy
Oh yeah and if I can't get the money on my oyster card I will end up paying £2.40 there each way and only be able to claim £1.30 each way.

If you can borrow a fiver off someone, can't you borrow a fiver off them to get to one of the agencies that can get your cv to employers? Seems like that might be more of a benefit to you if you feel the work programme wont help you.

I know youve got to go to the work programme, but could you for sake of argument borrow a tenner instead of a fiver?

Richardsct

I was at my initial interview with the provider for about an hour, I see them now about every 2 weeks(ish), they have done one 'structured job search session' - about 1hr 15mins, improved my cv, I get all my bus fares reimbursed on the spot. They have now recommended I try to get some voluntary work arranged if I can, thats it!

so far its turning out (for me anyway) a lot better than expected