After the Work Programme

Chester666666

Lith wrote: »

It's possible... JSA needs to be scrapped or give us a new age limit


JSA only for 25 year olds.....

IF ONLY

Only for 25 is not practical

KevInChester

If you aren't getting interviews then I would go with a slightly different approach. I have in the past written cover letters that contained humour within them - these got me an interview 95% of the time and often the job itself. It's something that has to be carefully judged but if done right it can help you to stand out.

Of course this isn't going to get you anywhere with certain institutions and will probably render you unable to ever get a job there, but for some it works a treat!

As for applying for 500 without an interview, if they were 500 proper jobs I'd think something was definitely amiss, as it is there probably is something wrong but an important thing to realise is a good proportion of those will invariably be none jobs (CV harvesting exercises and the like).

Morglin

My daughter applied for and got a part time job (24 hours) last year with a small building firm, they wanted someone to do the accounts etc.,

It wasn't particularly well paid, but she took it as a temporary measure until she could get into what she actually wanted to do.

She only wanted it as a stop gap, and has since moved on, but the point is that there were 512 applicants for this job, and that means 511 didn't get it - not because there was anything wrong with them, simply because there was only one job going.

It's not always about the applicants, it's often about too many people chasing too few jobs.

Lin

Podge52

Morglin wrote: »

My daughter applied for and got a part time job (24 hours) last year with a small building firm, they wanted someone to do the accounts etc.,

It wasn't particularly well paid, but she took it as a temporary measure until she could get into what she actually wanted to do.

She only wanted it as a stop gap, and has since moved on, but the point is that there were 512 applicants for this job, and that means 511 didn't get it - not because there was anything wrong with them, simply because there was only one job going.

It's not always about the applicants, it's often about too many people chasing too few jobs.

Lin

This is what annoys me about the bashers on this site, they just won't concede that there are far too few jobs available and that a lot of the posters on here actually want to work but genuinely cant' find any.

Caroline_a

melysion wrote: »

There are many reasons why people become long term unemployed. In some cases it is due to bad attitude but you can't tar everyone with that brush, no matter how much you want to sensibleadvice.

Age discrimination is rife. Anyone over the age of 50 has virtually no chance of getting another job due to nothing other than their age. Being overqualified is another barrier difficult to overcome. Oh sure, one can dumb down their cv but what do you put in its place? How would I, for example, explain away my PhD and postdoc work spanning the last 15 years? Pretend I work in Asda? What would I do for a reference seeing as my only referees are my PhD supervisor and current line manager who is a university professor.

And these are not excuses. These are real life actual barriers. In my case, I am in the middle of a career change (due to the fact that there's simply no funding for my branch of science anymore) and thankfully that change requires someone with my qualifications but that's not a route open to everyone.

Also bear in mind there is a serious shortage of jobs. Here's hoping that will soon change but it's dire at the moment.

Totally disagree with this. It's not about age, it's about attitude. In the past 4 years I've been made redundant 3 times, yet have not been out of a job as I've hit the applications hard as soon as I knew it was a possibility. I am now 59, and have been in my current position for about 16 months.

If you think that you have no chance because you're old, then you probably are giving out those impressions. Age is a number.

melysion

Caroline_a wrote: »

Totally disagree with this. It's not about age, it's about attitude. In the past 4 years I've been made redundant 3 times, yet have not been out of a job as I've hit the applications hard as soon as I knew it was a possibility. I am now 59, and have been in my current position for about 16 months.

If you think that you have no chance because you're old, then you probably are giving out those impressions. Age is a number.

Good for you, but statistically the long term unemployed are likely to be under the age of 25 or over the age of 50. And there is real discrimination out there. Yes, we all know its illegal etc etc but we also all know what the terms ¨overqualified¨ and ¨not the right fit¨ for the company can actually mean.

I am not over 50 by the way, so I wasn't quoting something that was relevant to me personally.

Attitude is important though - I will agree with you there.

red_devil

Advisor has just told me come April 3 things are coming in.

More frequent visits to the centre
work placement for 6 months 30 hours a week
one other possibly intensive jobsearching at a centre.

red_devil

melysion wrote: »

Good for you, but statistically the long term unemployed are likely to be under the age of 25 or over the age of 50. And there is real discrimination out there. Yes, we all know its illegal etc etc but we also all know what the terms ¨overqualified¨ and ¨not the right fit¨ for the company can actually mean.

I am not over 50 by the way, so I wasn't quoting something that was relevant to me personally.

Attitude is important though - I will agree with you there.

yes ageism does exist.

Caroline_a

It does (I was once asked how I would cope with working with a load of 'young people' - I was 35!). However, in some situations it can be almost a bonus to be, shall we say, a mature woman. There is little to no chance that you will be off having babies!

I think there are 'isms' for a lot of things - most employers have an idea of the sort of person they want to employ, and unfortunately that can mean age/sex/ethnicity, although now nobody will say that's the reason why you've been rejected. I think certain roles are more suitable for young people, and certain roles for more mature people. You just have to accentuate the positives for you.

Morglin

I think it depends on the firm - many only want young workers, but others are ok with older people.

And, of course, experience and attitude plays a huge part.

Lin