Welfare to work

xxangelxwingsxx

Hi,
This is my first post and I'm not sure if it's in the right category, but I've recently been looking for work and one of the companies that popped up was Ingeus, which is a recruitment firm to help the long term unemployed get back into work. It seems to have a bit of a bad reputation, but I like the concept. Does anyone know of other companies which are similar? Or how much the government would actually pay a company like this to place a person in a job? I spent a lot of time looking at the welfare to work schemes online, but found it hard to see through the jargon and red tape. This left me wondering if anyone has a good link or a simple explanation of how companies like Ingeus work and make money? From the information I saw on the government website, it seems like companies "bid" on large contracts and there is not a specific "fee" for helping someone who has been unemployed for a long time into a job. It is impossible to browse these contracts without searching for a keyword though. Processes like these should be made more transparent!

marybelle01

xxangelxwingsxx wrote: »

Hi,
This is my first post and I'm not sure if it's in the right category, but I've recently been looking for work and one of the companies that popped up was Ingeus, which is a recruitment firm to help the long term unemployed get back into work. It seems to have a bit of a bad reputation, but I like the concept. Does anyone know of other companies which are similar? Or how much the government would actually pay a company like this to place a person in a job? I spent a lot of time looking at the welfare to work schemes online, but found it hard to see through the jargon and red tape. This left me wondering if anyone has a good link or a simple explanation of how companies like Ingeus work and make money? From the information I saw on the government website, it seems like companies "bid" on large contracts and there is not a specific "fee" for helping someone who has been unemployed for a long time into a job. It is impossible to browse these contracts without searching for a keyword though. Processes like these should be made more transparent!

Ther is a specific fee attached to each person - I found it on a google search when looking at another thread some time ago. Not that I can recall where - it was just a google search.

But why would you care where there money comes from? Do you inquire of all possible employers where their money comes from? Because there aren't many with clean hands if you do!

Can you do a good job? Could you make a difference in the life of someone out of work? If you can, isn't that what matters?

xxangelxwingsxx

I was thinking about it more in terms of if there was a more ethical way of going about it. For example, a company with a less negative reputation. Or maybe a way of setting something like this up yourself? I have previously helped a couple of members of family and friends with a variety of problems, from just a lack of confidence and qualifications to severe depression, cope with these issues and move into full or part time employment, but I do not want to work for a company that pushes people into jobs they are over qualified for or slave labor, just to meet targets essentially doing more harm than good. My main question, I suppose, is if there is any government funding for someone doing this on a small scale, say seeing 10-15 people a week? I read somewhere (unsure now where it was) that an employer can get over £1000 hiring someone, who was unemployed long term, for over 26 weeks (I think)...but obviously that would not be the case if you had helped someone find employment, rather than employing them directly.

ohreally

xxangelxwingsxx wrote: »

I was thinking about it more in terms of if there was a more ethical way of going about it. For example, a company with a less negative reputation.

Chances are a provider with a "less negative reputation", simply haven't been found out yet.

xxangelxwingsxx

That's what made me think maybe there's a niche in the market...but I struggled to get any useful information about how to find funding etc. to do something like this. I trawled a few forums, as well as government websites, and came up with nothing, so though posting a new thread might help me get some useful info.

marybelle01

I regularly buy coffee from the supermarket. Fair traded. Always. I don't think. I know what coffee producers get for their product. I know how it is produced. I lived there! Fair trade is the best buy of a bad deal.

I produce mamajuana at home (and no that didn't say what you all think it did, and I didn't spell it wrong!) because I got a taste for it in Haiti. It costs me 25 times what it used to cost, that's cheap, and I don't like to think about the way my rum gets into it. Certainly not anywhere near ethically.

All of these providers take government money for government targets. But that isn't the point. Can you make a difference? Can you help someone? Nobody is going to give you a contract. But you could make a difference. Ethics are what you make them.

xxangelxwingsxx

Surely if a better way could be found though, it would help both people looking for work and also the government? Is it really a good thing to work for a company spending government money shoving people into jobs they don't really want, just for them to leave after a certain period of time. Surely we should be looking for a solution that actually works rather than saying go and work for something you don't really think is helping just because it's the best of a bad bunch? I'd rather work doing something completely different and use my spare time to help others, than dedicate my career to doing something I thought was more of a hindrance than a help.