Work Programme Employability Skills "Course" - LOSING THE WILL TO LIVE!!!

Macrae88

Hi,

I've been on the Work Programme since the beginning of the year, and on Monday I had to start an NCFE Employability Skills Level 1 Certificate course. It's going to last two weeks. Frankly, the whole course is insulting.

I'm seriously losing the will to live whilst doing it. Frankly I find the whole course insulting. One of the assessment questions was this:

3 people go to pizza hut, together they buy 3 pizza's, 4 drinks, and 3 desserts. How many drinks did they buy?

That was genuinely one of the questions.

We're doing 1 module per day, which could be complete in about 15 minutes each, but somehow it gets dragged throughout the whole day. I spend 90% of the time, sitting and waiting whilst people are still writing, or exchanging stories about why they went to prison, or how they were sacked for being racist. And what makes this whole thing even worse, is that the 'teacher' just tells everyone exactly what we've got to write in each box.

For example we had to come up with several writing tips and write them in the boxes provided (taxing stuff I know). He just sat there saying "Spelling, write that in box 1. Grammar, write that in box 2..."

Apparently I have no choice but to do this course otherwise I lose my JSA. This Level 1 course is also going to look "really good" on my CV. I can see it now, sitting above my Level 6 bachelors degree, with employers thinking "Wow employability skills level 1! Let's take this guy"

There is no chance this "qualification" is going anywhere near my CV. Is there anything I can do about

Has anyone had to suffer through this "course"? And is there any way out of it? I'd much rather spend the day sticking stamps onto envelopes...

saintjammyswine

Sadly, these types of courses are often used by providers as a way of claiming funding to allow them to put on more valuable courses which the government do not fund. Is it being linked to any other training? There should have been some sort of IAG (Information, Advice & Guidance) session before the course to determine whether the course was right for you, was this done?

AP007

No there is no way out of it and I have only done two 'sessions' that both lasted no more than 35 mins.

One was understanding the employment market where they wanted people to open and LinkedIn account and since I had one and I had had it for 2 years I was just told to sit there

The 2nd was interview technique where the 'advisor' asked me if I wanted to take the session and handed me her notes and then I was banned for answering any questions as she said I knew the answers. I thought you were meant to the know these answers or was it she just had her nose out of joint by not being the one in charge with all the answers?

These two sessions were given to me on weeks 94 out of the 102 week WP to look like they had 'done something' to help me.

These sessions/course are as slow as the slowest person in the room yet they are all meant to be tailor made for the individual and we know that's not true at all.

Macrae88

Hi and thanks for the reply,

There has been on talk of any other courses or training what so ever. All I've been told is that I have got to do this course otherwise I will be sanctioned.

There was some talk before it started that I may not be eligible to do it because I've got a degree, one of the staff mentioned "what they don't know won't hurt them", before they decided I could do the course, and that I'd "learn a lot".

The only thing close to advice I got before the course was a test, consisting of 7 maths questions and 7 English questions, which surprise surprise I got 100% in. Which isn't difficult when you get question such as:

Circle the picture of the clock that shows the time as 6:20.

and

Which of these words fit into the sentence best: Have, Would, Can, Will

LOST! _____ you seen this dog? (followed by a picture of a dog)

We're even filling in our own assessment pages, we're being told to tick yes to all of the questions like: Is the evidence for Activity 1 sufficient. Which I'm pretty sure isn't our job.

saintjammyswine

The test is the Literacy & Numeracy assessment, standard to most funded training. Depending on which funding they are using, prior achievement such as your degree is not relevant for example ESF Skills Support for Unemployment does not take this into account. It would, however look bad in an audit that there was no IAG to assess the suitability of the course to you & your needs.

AP007

Macrae88 wrote: »

Hi and thanks for the reply,

There has been on talk of any other courses or training what so ever. All I've been told is that I have got to do this course otherwise I will be sanctioned.

There was some talk before it started that I may not be eligible to do it because I've got a degree, one of the staff mentioned "what they don't know won't hurt them", before they decided I could do the course, and that I'd "learn a lot".

The only thing close to advice I got before the course was a test, consisting of 7 maths questions and 7 English questions, which surprise surprise I got 100% in. Which isn't difficult when you get question such as:

Circle the picture of the clock that shows the time as 6:20.

and

Which of these words fit into the sentence best: Have, Would, Can, Will

LOST! _____ you seen this dog? (followed by a picture of a dog)

We're even filling in our own assessment pages, we're being told to tick yes to all of the questions like: Is the evidence for Activity 1 sufficient. Which I'm pretty sure isn't our job.

If I had to do this I would act like an idiot as they are sure thinking you are one (not that you are at all).

I would ask them to explain the question and say you dint understand

Macrae88

AP007 wrote: »

No there is no way out of it and I have only done two 'sessions' that both lasted no more than 35 mins.

These days are lasting about 6 hours, yesterday we learnt all about how to search for jobs. We ended having decided that the internet, newspapers and the job centre are good places to look. Today we learnt about how to apply for jobs. We all had to write a covering letter and fill in an application for. We were told just to "make up" any details we didn't know. These weren't looked at, and we just had to tick yes for the "Is the evidence for Activity X sufficient" box.

AP007

Macrae88 wrote: »

These days are lasting about 6 hours, yesterday we learnt all about how to search for jobs. We ended having decided that the internet, newspapers and the job centre are good places to look. Today we learnt about how to apply for jobs. We all had to write a covering letter and fill in an application for. We were told just to "make up" any details we didn't know. These weren't looked at, and we just had to tick yes for the "Is the evidence for Activity X sufficient" box.

who is your provider and how long have you been on the WP do far?

Macrae88

saintjammyswine wrote: »

The test is the Literacy & Numeracy assessment, standard to most funded training.

I wish places like this would use some common sense, I have a degree, so surely I must be pretty literate. My degree also happens to be in engineering, which is pretty maths heavy, so surely I've also got rather good numeracy skills.

I may just fill some of the questions with nonsense and fail on purpose, there's no way it's going on my CV anyway. It would be like sticking "dunce" on my CV. And if I failed maybe the course teaching would be looked into.

AP007

saintjammyswine wrote: »

The test is the Literacy & Numeracy assessment, standard to most funded training. Depending on which funding they are using, prior achievement such as your degree is not relevant for example ESF Skills Support for Unemployment does not take this into account. It would, however look bad in an audit that there was no IAG to assess the suitability of the course to you & your needs.

I never had a Literacy & Numeracy assessment or a IAG whatever that is.

Macrae88

AP007 wrote: »

who is your provider and how long have you been on the WP do far?

Sarina Russo Job Access

I've been there for 8ish months.