Ah, the brilliant waste of time where my advisor searches endlessly to find something, anything to make me apply for. She doesn't read my diary or ask what I've applied for myself though, strange.
She is still trying to convince me to get the A4e part over with. I am still not willing to do it. The deadline when I MUST start it is in 5 weeks. Having told me that she is still trying to force me to do it in 3.
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
New Deal Advisor day
Different New Deal Advisor today. I tell her about my dislike of A4e, and that I have an interview. She is very excited about that and arranges for me to see my normal advisor in 2 weeks so she doesn't have to send me to A4e. I hope her finger crossing for me helps!
Thursday, 4 March 2010
A4e Meeting
It seems that the first obstacle is actually finding the entrance on the unmarked building that looks derelict. I (wrongly) try the one that looks most like a reception and I am then pointed in the direction of another door. To get to the A4e reception, I walk through lots of corridors and pass approximately 10 training rooms and numerous scary looking characters. I'm pretty sure that this can't be the correct entrance to the building, as nobody would design it this way. It turns out when I am later shown out, that it is in fact the correct entrance.
Lucky me, I get to arrive during afternoon break so I get to see the other unfortunates. Still feeling rather concerned for my safety. As nobody was expecting me, I get a quite lengthy wait in reception, where I am rather amazed to spot an abandoned Financial Times.
Finally I get to meet someone from A4e. Ah, this must be when that personalised aspect of new Deal that I was assured of must come into play. Perhaps not. Instead of telling me anything about business admin, I get to fill in some forms where the expected answers don't really seem to reflect the question. For example, when asked about my career goals, I don't think 'i want a full time job' is really the same thing. I am then told that I need to give them more options for work experience than just admin. I need a second choice. I can't really think of jobs that are not office based, and admin was really already a last choice so I don't know what to suggest. It turns out that the A4e rep also has little idea. She suggests retail, which I reject, and then seems at a complete loss for some time, when she eventually thinks of cleaning. Hmm, work experience as a cleaner. I am sure that has never helped ANYBODY, expect perhaps the people getting free cleaning.
Next she decides to actually find out about me. Finally, maybe they'll realise how unhelpful they're being (I'm such an optimist). I get a form to write down my qualifications, from most recent first. She takes it, glances at the last thing I wrote and comments on my good grades. She then thinks the last thing I did was GCSEs....the LAST thing I wrote on my form. OK, maybe it was just forgetfulness, maybe she's not stupid. Then I tell her I finished my PhD in 2006. She thinks for some time and then decides this is 14, yes fourteen! years ago.
I finally escape having been bullied into putting down retail as an option for my work experience and saying I would be willing to work for minimum wage. Having seen the resources (I passed about 10 training rooms and saw only one with computers) and meeting the staff (company which claims to address their 'clients' literacy and numeracy needs should certainly look at their own staff), I am pretty sure that A4e is not in a position to help anybody, certainly not me. I am not planning on attending a course run by idiots that have somehow conned the government into funding their ridiculous scam. It looks like bullying me off jobseekers allowance is going to work as I have no intention of going somewhere which has nothing to offer me and where I am concerned for my safety. That's one way of fixing unemployment statistics I guess.
Lucky me, I get to arrive during afternoon break so I get to see the other unfortunates. Still feeling rather concerned for my safety. As nobody was expecting me, I get a quite lengthy wait in reception, where I am rather amazed to spot an abandoned Financial Times.
Finally I get to meet someone from A4e. Ah, this must be when that personalised aspect of new Deal that I was assured of must come into play. Perhaps not. Instead of telling me anything about business admin, I get to fill in some forms where the expected answers don't really seem to reflect the question. For example, when asked about my career goals, I don't think 'i want a full time job' is really the same thing. I am then told that I need to give them more options for work experience than just admin. I need a second choice. I can't really think of jobs that are not office based, and admin was really already a last choice so I don't know what to suggest. It turns out that the A4e rep also has little idea. She suggests retail, which I reject, and then seems at a complete loss for some time, when she eventually thinks of cleaning. Hmm, work experience as a cleaner. I am sure that has never helped ANYBODY, expect perhaps the people getting free cleaning.
Next she decides to actually find out about me. Finally, maybe they'll realise how unhelpful they're being (I'm such an optimist). I get a form to write down my qualifications, from most recent first. She takes it, glances at the last thing I wrote and comments on my good grades. She then thinks the last thing I did was GCSEs....the LAST thing I wrote on my form. OK, maybe it was just forgetfulness, maybe she's not stupid. Then I tell her I finished my PhD in 2006. She thinks for some time and then decides this is 14, yes fourteen! years ago.
I finally escape having been bullied into putting down retail as an option for my work experience and saying I would be willing to work for minimum wage. Having seen the resources (I passed about 10 training rooms and saw only one with computers) and meeting the staff (company which claims to address their 'clients' literacy and numeracy needs should certainly look at their own staff), I am pretty sure that A4e is not in a position to help anybody, certainly not me. I am not planning on attending a course run by idiots that have somehow conned the government into funding their ridiculous scam. It looks like bullying me off jobseekers allowance is going to work as I have no intention of going somewhere which has nothing to offer me and where I am concerned for my safety. That's one way of fixing unemployment statistics I guess.
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
New Deal Advisor day
It's another new deal advisor day. Today I am told to go and visit A4e before my course 'to see if it's appropriate..but it's irrelevant since it's a mandatory course'. Not sure about the point of this, but it means putting of the course for another week, so it seems I'm going to a meeting to talk about what sort of business admin work experience they offer.
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