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

saintjammyswine

john539 wrote: »

You need to listen what people are saying about these cobbled together scam "activity" courses run by who knows, that people are being dumped on as Work Programme has failed.

And you need to read my posts before saying this.

john539

saintjammyswine wrote: »

And you need to read my posts before saying this.

You need to learn to listen to what is happening in real world.

saintjammyswine

john539 wrote: »

You need to learn to listen to what is happening in real world.

I do. That's why I am saying that IAG should be done to make sure the courses are right for the person, not just a way of providers using up funding. I also work in the real world with these groups of people and have seen the benefits of the courses when done correctly, with the right people. Thats what I mean by read my posts.

Who?_me?

I agree with Saint Jammy swine, some people benefit hugley from these coures, a lot of time is spent with people working out that actually being a stay at home mum or playing in the 5 a side is actually something worth putting on a CV. It can be very very hard work to extract information and make them realise that they do actually have skills that will help them get a job. Equally, having people with degrees and what ever is frustrating because you know they don't want to be there, and that it's way below them. However, if you don't jump through your hoops (as a tutor) then you will be the one unemployed. Quite a few of these tutors are actually people who have been unemployed, often unemployed teachers. Tutors want to make it as interesting as possible for those who are more able, but are tied by who has refered the people. It could be coming in on monday morning and going "oh god, I have a class of 15 and 10 of them have degrees and 5 of them are Entry 3, what the hell am I going to do with them all day?" I would appeal to the more able to help the less able.
So, if they are so rubbish and you have to be there, what could be done to make them more interesting? use of Video of how not to interview like David Brent from the office? how not to do customer service by Faulty Towers? or activities that are more active and extreme, competitions? what could be done to make you feel more included / enjoyable (other than a free lunch). If you have to be there, then isn't it better to make it as fun as possible?

ChrisPBacon

The OP was talking about losing the will to live because of the 2 week course, but learndirect have just informed me that I will be doing a 10 week full-time employability course. How they have managed to stretch it to 10 weeks is beyond me. My adviser tells me it is for my benefit, and it will be really good, because they have employed professional role players (lucky me). I bet I could be doing HGV training for less than the cost of a 10 week employability course. Theres all sorts of courses I could do which would make me genuinely more employable, but I have to waste 10 weeks of my life on this nonsense, and it will also prevent me from doing my voluntary work and training. Of course I may benefit from some employability training, I am not saying I know it all, but there is no way I need 10 weeks of it. I have done some fairly intensive technical courses in my time, and none of them were longer than 1 week.

I think I am reasonably well educated, and I have worked for 30 years, but that does not prove my employability to Learndirect. It is ludicrous to send me on a course of that length, which will be very likely aimed at the lowest common denominator. By not applying any sensible criteria to who has to do the course, there will continue to be funding for these ridiculously long, expensive courses which is great for the course providers. This type of course could never survive in the real world, if people had to pay for it themselves. Who on earth would pay to do a 10 week full-time employability course? But then this is tax funded, and learndirect have made it mandatory. I strongly suspect the course is going to be a complete joke, and the course providers will be laughing all the way to the bank.

I would be very interested if anyone has any experience with the 10 week course, and I would love to know exactly what is covered on the course. I think the training is provided by a company called 'Wing' or something like that, I stopped listening when the red mist came.