I start a Work Placement

paulineb_2

marybelle01 wrote: »

That is assuming that nobody from the Third Sector in East Lancashire (a) browses this board or (b) has otherwise come across the OP. Wanting a volunteer and wanting the OP as a volunteer are not really the same thing.

He'll be back telling you to wind your neck in and keep your opinions to yourself shortly:rotfl:

marybelle01

paulineb wrote: »

He'll be back telling you to wind your neck in and keep your opinions to yourself shortly:rotfl:

Really couldn't give a f***. In a job, never been out of one. p**ed off with people who think I owe them a living for having the guts to work.


There are shed loads of people who want jobs and can't get them. The OP doesn't want to work. That's fine by me. I don't want to pay for the OP to laze around. That's also fine by me.


GG - refuse to go. I don't give a s*t whether you have enough to eat, or can pay your bills. Not my problem. Three bloody years - you aren't remotely tryng to get a job.

System

Twisted_Cherry wrote: »

Being out of work for as long as I have has not stopped me being accepted to university on three different occasions. Five offers in 2010 - I withdrew my place because I was too ill to start. One offer in 2011 – The classes clashed with my long-term therapy which was starting at the same time. In addition, another offer last year - I finally decided the course I wanted to do was not for me and I was doing it for all the wrong reasons!

In my 7 years out of work I have been hospitalised 6 times for mental health problems, tried to take my own life 4 times, but still completed an Access Course, Literacy Level 1 & 2, Numeracy Level 1 & 2, Mental Health Awareness Level 1 & 2, English GCSE (B) and ECDL (IT Skills). I have also volunteered for a charity and helped create a forum in a hospital for patients with Mental Health Problems – my CV is far from empty, and I am certain when I am ready to return to work it will not take me long to find a job. I have guaranteed references from five different people! I also plan to study part time at university from this September for a degree that will take six years to complete. I want to do this because achieving a degree has been a dream of mine for some time.

Wishing you the best of luck, you have the right attitude and I have no doubt you'll get where you want to be I sympathise how it can be a struggle with mh problems but it can be done (took me 3 years of illness to get where I am now )

DKLS

paulineb wrote: »

It took me 5 minutes to pick up an application for volunteering and a couple of weeks to sort out a start date. You kicked off this thread complaining that you didn't want to do a voluntary placement yes? Youve been unemployed for how long? 3 years? How much voluntary work have you actually done in that time? Id be interested to know.

If I was interviewing GG for a role, one of my questions would be based on what he has been doing for the past three years.


If he could say that times have been hard, but to improve his chances he had taken on voluntary roles and had done some form of study I would me much more open to taking him on.

paulineb_2

DKLS wrote: »

If I was interviewing GG for a role, one of my questions would be based on what he has been doing for the past three years.


If he could say that times have been hard, but to improve his chances he had taken on voluntary roles and had done some form of study I would me much more open to taking him on.

I spent around 18 months unemployed in the last 5 years. I couldnt wait to get off JSA. I know how tough it is out there. Ive got a degree and two professional qualifications and in one year I got two interviews. Not for the line of work I used to do, working in a gym for minimum wage.

I also tried for jobs in other areas without success. I live in a poor area with a lot of unemployment. But when I did get part time work, it was due to me sending CVs to businesses.

Apart from doing voluntary work, I also looked into other study. In the end I started working for myself, went back and worked part time for a while and now Im working for myself again and no its not been easy and Im not making a fortune but I am off the dole. The problem is if people dont start looking for alternatives, another year will pass, then another and before you know it, you'll have a huge gap on your CV that other people wont have.

It would not have bothered me in the slightest if I had turned up at my volunteer work in a charity shop to find out that other people were there on a community payback order. So what. I was there to get skills that I didnt have, it got me out and meeting new people and I enjoyed it.

There are people on this forum who have genuinely tried to help the OP, but have been told to shut up along the way. And reading some of the older posts it seems he cant ask for help and support in the areas he needs it because his adviser is fit and therefore he cant communicate with him?

How on earth are you going to get on in the real world if all it takes is a fit bloke to stop you getting access to courses you need? Or if someone asks you to take your gay T shirt off and you wont do it?

Its about helping yourself. Some people work full time and give up their time freely to help charities and dont moan and groan about it. My mum worked every Saturday in a charity shop for 2 years and she works full time during the week.

I dont agree with workfare. But if I were still on the dole right now Id be getting on with finding what courses I could do at college, stuff like food hygiene, first aid. Id be looking for voluntary work. If I had a gap in literacy or numeracy Id be asking the job centre to send me on a course, Id be doing everything I could to make myself more employable.

And I wouldnt be spitting the dummy out everytime something didnt suit me.

DKLS

Great post Pauline, you have shown the qualities that make candidates stand out. Mainly you have shown you have the initiative and drive to try different things to make yourself more employable.


I will never forget a Coder that I gave a chance to, on paper he was a terrible candidate, his work history was either unemployed or as a binman, had no qualifications and had taught himself coding.


Yet his sample code was the most elegant and efficient code I have ever seen and I couldn't not offer him a job.


He thrived in the job and four years after giving him a job he was head hunted and now works in Silicon Valley.

BillJones

szam_ wrote: »

If the likes of red_devil and GG started looking at the positives of the things they constantly bemoan, rather than single out the negatives, they'd be employed and earning a decent living for themselves.

They seem to look only at the immediate advantage or cost of any actions, and to completely disregard the longer-tern effects.

This is the sort of outlook that leads to their current situation.

red_devil

BillJones wrote: »

They seem to look only at the immediate advantage or cost of any actions, and to completely disregard the longer-tern effects.

This is the sort of outlook that leads to their current situation.

Yes like you know all the individual posters personally.:T

ive done voluntary work for ages and didnt need the jobcentre to force me. I dont believe in forced workfare as said. Its fiddling the figures and slave labour. Nothing about getting you into work at all.

Twisted_Cherry

xXMessedUpXx wrote: »

Wishing you the best of luck, you have the right attitude and I have no doubt you'll get where you want to be I sympathise how it can be a struggle with mh problems but it can be done (took me 3 years of illness to get where I am now )

Thank you!

I have only ever been sacked from one job, and that was because it was the start of my depression back in 2001 and the job made me unhappy... I got to the point where I would take days off here and there and eventually they fired me. I was so relieved... I signed on JSA, but found a new job within 3 weeks and remained there for 4 years!

Twisted_Cherry

red_devil wrote: »

Yes like you know all the individual posters personally.:T

ive done voluntary work for ages and didnt need the jobcentre to force me. I dont believe in forced workfare as said. Its fiddling the figures and slave labour. Nothing about getting you into work at all.

So what do you think the job centre should be doing with those long term unemployed people that can't find work? I'm talking those unemployed for 2 years + ???