What retraining opportunities are there for someone on JSA?

falko89

welshone wrote: »

How can you call these Mickey Mouse courses? They have enabled many people to gain qualifications and skills to allow them to gain employment. I find your comment degrading to all those people who have worked hard to gain these qualifications!

I can only speak for the I.T courses as that's all I know about, how much weight do these actually carry? With I.T especially being so competitive these days anything less than a degree will not get you in the door, OK you might be able to use them as a stepping stone for a degree or something but I doubt if an ECDL alone will get you a job but I am prepared to be proved wrong.

Emmzi

with life experience you could look at an access course or they may waive the requirements. Go for a cha!

MusicalLawyer

Emmzi wrote: »

with life experience you could look at an access course or they may waive the requirements. Go for a cha!

You don't need 'life experience' to do an Access Course.

If you have life experience a University MAY waive the entry requirements.

Also, you MAY be able to transfer credits from an Open University Course to a Brick University - even if they only count them as Entry Requirements.

falko89

Thanks all, gonna have to make enquires into all this

LadyMissA

falko89 wrote: »

I did that checker thing and it said.

Your fees paid up to a value of £820 for courses of at least 30 points totalling up to 60 credit points.
A course grant of £265 to help with study expenses.

I just did that and got the same. Never knew you could study for free.

marybelle01

falko89 wrote: »

I can only speak for the I.T courses as that's all I know about, how much weight do these actually carry? With I.T especially being so competitive these days anything less than a degree will not get you in the door, OK you might be able to use them as a stepping stone for a degree or something but I doubt if an ECDL alone will get you a job but I am prepared to be proved wrong.

Have you picked IT because you have a burning desire to learn more about IT, or because you think that a degree in IT will get you through an employers door? If it is the latter, reconsider. A degree is not a passport to a job as many graduates have been finding for years now, and IT is no longer the cash cow industry with loads of jobs and high wages, as anyone who works in it will be able to tell you. An ECDL alone may not get you a job - neither will a degree alone. It will just take you a hell of a lot longer to find out that there are still no jobs. If you want to learn for the sake and love of learning then great, do it. But don't expect it to make you any more likely to get a job than you are now, because if you do then you are likely to be very disappointed.

dandelionclock30

Absolutley true ^ ,my friend had a well paid I.T job finding faults in programmes before they were distributed and he got made redundant.He has a degree, masters and about 20 years experience in top jobs. He struggled to get anything and has had to go onto a short term temp contract the other end of the country.

ditzyat50

brightonman123 wrote: »

ECDL has been 'rebranded', i think- i did the 'ITQ level 2' (still issued by British Computer Society) -

Self study modules for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, plus one more rather pointless bit, 'assessing' which best programme to use in various scenarios..

The original (old) ECDL had more included- Access (databases), and Internet searces etc..

Is the CLAIT similar to / higher level than this?

courses was fully funded through JCP - check them, or local colleges, to see what schemes they offer..

I did ECDL 5 years ago and the job centre are now putting me on another ECDL course because "it's been upated since then" I asked if I could do CLAIT so as to put something new on my CV but was told there would not be the funds for that because it was a lower level than the ECDL I had previously done.

Elvisia

I would go and look at universities individually, as their rates if you're on JSA will vary. I found out my old university where I wanted to do another degree at didn't actually allow me to do a course at a reduced rate even though in their brochure it said they did, so I would really recommend making an appointment to speak to the admissions people.

I was recommended by the Job Centre to take out a career development loan to do another degree. I have a BA and MA and having a PhD would improve my chances of getting teaching work in a university. I was not impressed that they suggested I get into debt, I asked about any possible funding from somewhere, anywhere, and my JC advisor said oh they ran courses that would be useful for me, and handed me a leaflet on Basic English Literacy courses. I kept the leaflet and mulled over framing it just to remind me how useless they were.

You could also ask your local library, when I was signing on I went in there and honestly the woman behind the Enquiries Desk was way more helpful and knowledgable than anyone at the JC. They have an awful lot of information available and they can recommend how to find things online too.

Elvisia

Also you may not need to have ALevels to do a degree, you can do access or foundation courses that may be free to you. I taught a student on an MA course who didn't have a degree but plenty of life experience. Once you get over the age of 21 they tend to be a bit easier on applicants.