After the Work Programme

BillJones

donnajunkie wrote: »

well had to put up with tons of annoying paperwork today on my first day. had to go through the usual humiliation of the literacy and numeracy tests.

How come you find them humiliating? I've always quite enjoyed that kind of thing.

donnajunkie

AP007 wrote: »

What is this then?

its the course i got put on that i have mentioned earlier in the thread. not the ujm thing, the one where i was told i would get a letter and didnt. jobsearch support is what it claims to be. whether it will be any different to every other course remains to be seen.

donnajunkie

BillJones wrote: »

How come you find them humiliating? I've always quite enjoyed that kind of thing.

its the kind of thing a 6 year old does at school. you have to do them every single time you do a course. i had to do them late last year on a course and there i was doing them again today.

imatt

BillJones wrote: »

How come you find them humiliating? I've always quite enjoyed that kind of thing.

Perhaps because it assumes ALL jobseekers have issues with basic education. Even though those that may have a degree.

In reality, a bog standard box ticking excercise that makes it look like the WP provider is actually doing something to justify their position rather than offering genuine help, advice and direction.

sensibleadvice

AP007 wrote: »

There are lots of jobs advertised everywhere and applying for them wont get you a job as easily as you seem to think.

I apply for jobs on the UJM that are 3rd party adverts that are on other sites I have accounts on and still no interviews.

Knock back 2 days ago as the job was for a junior yet the job advert said 'Accounts Experience Needed' so no way of really knowing the woman mean NO experience needed as her reply stated to me when I asked for feedback. Job centre can not do anything about this or the ones where they say 'you are not working so we cant help you' (agencies).

The site has jobs on it, so what? So does Reed, Monster, Cityjobs, Totaljobs and there is no power to get anyone an interview even when you meet the criteria they are looking for.

I agree meeting the criteria if often not enough. Employers generally won't pay too much attention to generic cliched CVs. To have a better chance of success you have to set yourself apart from the field. Do this and you'd be surprised how far up the selection process this can get you.

AP007

sensibleadvice wrote: »

I agree meeting the criteria if often not enough. Employers generally won't pay too much attention to generic cliched CVs. To have a better chance of success you have to set yourself apart from the field. Do this and you'd be surprised how far up the selection process this can get you.

In the last knock back I had set myself apart from the rest too well it seems for a job that was exaggerated in the advert.

sensibleadvice

donnajunkie wrote: »

i know how to use it, all they have to do is ask me if i know how to use it. i would ask for help if i didnt know how to use it.
again 6 months using it and no job offer does not mean i dont know how to use it.

Yet in 6 months you'd not managed to find a way to add a covering letter, blaming the system when in fact you could use it to your advantage.

sensibleadvice

donnajunkie wrote: »

do you know how basic the site is? its not rocket science. only technophobes will have issues.

Jobs filterable by location, keyword, type, salary etc? Somewhere to save and uploads various CVs? Log of posts applied for?

That aside, dwp having a record that a claimant is familiar with the system means that the claimant can't later claim they can't use it and dwp can therefore expect a reasonable level of applications from the system.

AP007

sensibleadvice wrote: »

Jobs filterable by location, keyword, type, salary etc? Somewhere to save and uploads various CVs? Log of posts applied for?

That aside, dwp having a record that a claimant is familiar with the system means that the claimant can't later claim they can't use it and dwp can therefore expect a reasonable level of applications from the system.

Salary search not available on UJM

It wont automatically any job you apply for that diverts you to a 3rd party site. There is not even any log that you have even clicked on the job let alone applied for it.

There is nothing written down to say you have to apply for jobs on it only use the site.

sensibleadvice

donnajunkie wrote: »

well had to put up with tons of annoying paperwork today on my first day. had to go through the usual humiliation of the literacy and numeracy tests. the people seem ok but they do decieve. someone asked if they got paid if we get a job and they said yes. they then got asked do we tell you if we get a job even if we get it ourselves. the response was yes. they said its so they know we wont be attending anymore. i thought yeah right, its so you can claim credit for it more like. if i get a job i will sign off and say nothing to them unless it was them who got me the job. got to go in thursday and friday which is a pain but they seem to be flexible and will work around my voluntary work and we dont have to be there everyday.

Seriously, focusing on who might take the credit if you get a job like that would really matter to someone who really wanted a job.

Why don't you go get a job yourself then? Wouldn't that be more productive than being out of work all that time when you could do better yourself without any support?

Even after taking account of the fact this is only a forum, typos, awkward keyboards etc, it looks like there's room for improvement on literacy at least so don't be too humiliated by the tests.