JSA Work programme

slenderkitten

Hi, no it will not count as work programme i'm afraid. I found my own volunteering opportunity, i got the job centre to pay for the travel for 6 weeks.

It's a shame but charity or volunteering work is only experience there is little or no chance of paid or at least full time paid employment which is the aim of the WP. Not that the WP works anyway.

But finding your own volunteer opportunity looks good on your cv, and means you got motivation.

Nightranger

AP007 wrote: »

Appalled? How so? 4 people including a centre manager told me 'we will not be able to help you'. The only advise I got in the last month was if you are single and have no kids try to get a job in the middle east!!!

All I can say is I was never treated like that although it is more than possible my last providers felt that way about me too. Obviously, there are things I cannot talk about on an open forum but I can assure that my life would be in a seriously bad position right now had I not been on a WP and had no fall-back position. However, it is not just this last WP but two of three previous ones where I got some elements of help when I needed it. Unfortunately, I cannot speak for anyone else because I have no idea what they/you need and you may even think you do not need anything at all but believe me, situations change and it is about asking the right questions at the key moments. One thing, I doubt you will get is help if you don't look/ask for it because they are dealing with large numbers of people and their brief is as much to find the slackers as it is for the JC. They will quickly identify those who require help or need a kick up the backside, which means some people get left to their own devices. The best advice I can give to anyone going onto a WP is keep your eyes and ears open. You can avoid being pushed onto placements that you do not want and that may be a key issue next April...for everyone out of work for more than two years.

Note on edit: Please do not get back at me with vitriol about how the WP is useless - I still think the system has failed in most if not all of its intended roles. However, I stress that there are small advantages to be had if you need them that you cannot possibly get from the JC.

AP007

Nightranger you have miss read what I have said. They told me the CV was comprehensive and very professional and so was my CV and we do not expect to see people here like you (with 20 years of accounts exp) and we have no knowledge or experience of what you do.

Being asked by one advisor if I would like to take the session on interview technique then banned me from answering the questions. I think it made her look stupid.

Then a girl in the session asked if I was out of work and I didn't look or sound like I was! LOL The 3rd person to say this to me who was actually on the WP - how bizzare!

Nightranger

AP007 wrote: »

Nightranger you have miss read what I have said. They told me the CV was comprehensive and very professional and so was my CV and we do not expect to see people here like you (with 20 years of accounts exp) and we have no knowledge or experience of what you do.

Being asked by one advisor if I would like to take the session on interview technique then banned me from answering the questions. I think it made her look stupid.

Then a girl in the session asked if I was out of work and I didn't look or sound like I was! LOL The 3rd person to say this to me who was actually on the WP - how bizzare!

No mate, I didn't misread what you said and I have seen a few of your other posts to know more than a little about your general situation. I was pretty much treated the same way to some extent except no one actually said it to my face. I just do not think it was fair that they should have been so dismissive even if you felt it was flattering. In the end, my job coach contact kept asking me if there was anything they could do or was there anything I wanted. Having said that, it took me two years to get them into that position and perhaps had things turned out differently early on this year they may never have got into the routine.

Where the system fails completely is just what you and I have found that a skilled and/or academic background is not an asset in a time of recession. I keep banging on about this but it it is a numbers game and I am sure some of the WP providers know this and do not have any more answers than you or I have. I am surprised that you did not find even the smallest advantage to use during your time on WP but in some ways, I have to be honest and say that I am surprised I got anything at all out of the experience(I stress they were relatively small advantages but that still means it was not a nett negative experience). The main point I want to get across for anyone reading this thread is not to go in with a negative attitude...and it is better that not everything read here is negative or benign. It pees me off how many times I hear the comment The Joke Centre (usually said in the loudest possible voice) and the bad attitudes I saw on the WP because I do not want to be associated with that attitude. Similarly, why I have looked to show there are things to be found if you look hard enough or in many cases, are receptive enough (even in the things that are panned to bits in general on here). I share all of your frustrations but like I have always told myself...it only takes one 'yes' to change life for the better...and it will happen.

AP007

Nightranger wrote: »

.

I am surprised that you did not find even the smallest advantage to use during your time on WP.

What advantage is the WP then?

AP007

Nightranger wrote: »

No mate, I didn't misread what you said and I have seen a few of your other posts to know more than a little about your general situation. I was pretty much treated the same way to some extent except no one actually said it to my face. I just do not think it was fair that they should have been so dismissive even if you felt it was flattering. In the end, my job coach contact kept asking me if there was anything they could do or was there anything I wanted. .

Where the system fails completely is just what you and I have found that a skilled and/or academic background is not an asset in a time of recession. The main point I want to get across for anyone reading this thread is not to go in with a negative attitude...and it is better that not everything read here is negative or benign. It pees me off how many times I hear the comment The Joke Centre (usually said in the loudest possible voice) and the bad attitudes I saw on the WP because I do not want to be associated with that attitude. Similarly, why I have looked to show there are things to be found if you look hard enough or in many cases, are receptive enough (even in the things that are panned to bits in general on here). I share all of your frustrations but like I have always told myself...it only takes one 'yes' to change life for the better...and it will happen.

I went in with open eyes but I knew on the 3rd appointment (my first with the advisor) that it was going to be crap as they then told me I had been transferred to another office and then lost my details for 4 months and never contacted me.

Blamed their own short comings and the staff they had there and I saw no one till Jan 2012.

I asked them time and time again 'why cant you get people interviews' and the reply was as we know 'we have no power or that'

All they can do is teach idiots how to set up an email address

I had even told people sitting next to me on a job search how to use the net and gave them a hand full of sites to use. One woman told me she had learnt more from me in 5 mins than she had from the WP advisor and why did they not know these websites I gave her to look at?

They didn't know and don't know as they have no experience in anything. One advisor used to work on the shop floor at Debenhams so what does she really know about accounts work? Not that she was my advisor but just something to point out. Not one specialist in any field at all. I even had to explain three times what purchase ledger was to one advisor as he had no clue. A 25 year old knows nothing really about the employment market only what they are told by the idiot manger who was never there. Staff were coming and going like yo yos there - I wonder why.


I was left to go in once a month as they said there was no point them seeing me as there was nothing they could say to me.

When I asked for a list of things they had done to help me all I got was an email with 3 or 4 jobs on it to apply for which I had already applied for on the Page Personnel site. Like they were doing me a favour! LOL

Nightranger

AP007 wrote: »

What advantage is the WP then?

Stop being bloody negative!

Seriously though, I have made clear that the system does not work and I suspect never will for its intended role. I have said elsewhere that WP providers have taken on a role where they issue recommendations for sanctions although to be honest, the people who get them probably deserve it. It is a shame that I cannot discuss why they helped me (there are potential legal issues involved) because I am sure you would understand, although I essentially had to make them work for me by careful negotiation (in fact they are still giving me some limited support that I am grateful for and I will endeavour to ensure they get credit when the time comes)

However, on a past WP it was placement time and I chose what I wanted to do only for the managers to initially refuse the travel expenses. Time was short and it looked like I was going to end up digging ditches with druggies and ex-cons. My job coach could tell you she was losing my cooperation and sympathy when I pointed out my academic background and that it was nice that my degree had not opened doors but dropped me into a muddy ditch. She went away and put my case much more forcefully and I had a very useful four week placement in conservation, two sites one of which, was a useful networking exercise. It did not lead to a job but imagine where my morale would have been after four weeks dragging supermarket trolleys out of the mud.

AP007

Nightranger wrote: »

Stop being bloody negative!

Seriously though, I have made clear that the system does not work and I suspect never will for its intended role. I have said elsewhere that WP providers have taken on a role where they issue recommendations for sanctions although to be honest, the people who get them probably deserve it. It is a shame that I cannot discuss why they helped me (there are potential legal issues involved) because I am sure you would understand, although I essentially had to make them work for me by careful negotiation (in fact they are still giving me some limited support that I am grateful for and I will endeavour to ensure they get credit when the time comes)

However, on a past WP it was placement time and I chose what I wanted to do only for the managers to initially refuse the travel expenses. Time was short and it looked like I was going to end up digging ditches with druggies and ex-cons. My job coach could tell you she was losing my cooperation and sympathy when I pointed out my academic background and that it was nice that my degree had not opened doors but dropped me into a muddy ditch. She went away and put my case much more forcefully and I had a very useful four week placement in conservation, two sites one of which, was a useful networking exercise. It did not lead to a job but imagine where my morale would have been after four weeks dragging supermarket trolleys out of the mud.

It was a serious question? What are the advantages?

What is a job coach?


'I essentially had to make them work for me by careful negotiation '

You made them get you job interviews?

I don't understand what you are saying if that's not what you mean. Maybe you needed some kind of support not all of us do, we need job interviews.

Nightranger

AP007 wrote: »

All they can do is teach idiots how to set up an email address

I had even told people sitting next to me on a job search how to use the net and gave them a hand full of sites to use. One woman told me she had learnt more from me in 5 mins than she had from the WP advisor and why did they not know these websites I gave her to look at?

They didn't know and don't know as they have no experience in anything. One advisor used to work on the shop floor at Debenhams so what does she really know about accounts work? Not that she was my advisor but just something to point out. Not one specialist in any field at all. I even had to explain three times what purchase ledger was to one advisor as he had no clue. A 25 year old knows nothing really about the employment market only what they are told by the idiot manger who was never there. Staff were coming and going like yo yos there - I wonder why.

I can identify with some of this but not all of it so it genuinely sounds like you had a provider that was not fit for purpose. I too ended up helping others on my programme and I often encouraged general chat amongst people around me to find out what their experiences were like. Indeed, on a few courses (one about local travel stands out) we developed a general discussion after the session where the presenter stayed on too.

OK, I have had job coaches that were wet behind the ears so I know where you are coming from and one provider was clearly out of their depth to the point that their local branch was closed down whilst another went bust later. However, two of the providers I worked with were extremely competent and had more experienced staff (not always job coaches so this is what I mean about asking around*) and the last one had a stable team that was still expanding when I finished.

* AP007 this comment is not necessarily aimed at you but at anyone reading the thread.

BTW, my mum's working career was as a Purchase Ledger Clerk but also in general admin roles with accounts although she has no formal qualifications. My dad was a gas fitter at a time when only City and Guilds were required but he sadly died before the Corgi registration came in when he would have made an absolute mint. I sometimes wonder if I missed my way but then again and as I have said on other threads, it is never easy to predict the future.

AP007

I had no 'courses' on mine.