Job-finding scheme beats the recession
Tuesday 31st August 2010, 3:00PM BST.
Jessica Norris, working as a receptionist/administrator at Omega Financial Services under the Advance to Work scheme, supervised by Michelle Rault, officer manager. Jessica has since been taken on by the firm
A SCHEME to help school leavers find work has been so successful that it has been extended to older Islanders to help counter the effects of the recession.
Advance Plus will offer people aged 20 and above an eight-week programme of training and work experience in areas of work where there are known vacancies.
It follows on from the Advance to Work scheme for youngsters aged between 16 and 19, which launched last year and has so far helped 76 young people find work.
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Whilst this can only be a good thing, I find it very hard to believe this has ‘beaten the recession’. The kind of jobs these candidates are training towards are more likely low skilled, low paid jobs. Companies always need a ‘helping hand’ especially when it comes in the form of a school leaver as it means they can pay a minimum salary.
You can’t ‘beat a recession’. With recession comes job losses and less jobs on the market. These jobs don’t exist to fill. A training scheme won’t magically create new jobs, but will of course help candidates to prepare themselves so they have as good a skill set as others when applying for jobs that do come up. As usual we’ve got the JEP using these propaganda style headlines to try to convince it’s readers that Jersey isn’t effected by the recession. Of course it is! My husband lost his job 2 years ago and is highly qualified. The fact of the matter is he can’t get a job because there are NO jobs out there (within his line of work or beyond). This training scheme would have no benefit to him. So there we are…that’s at least one person unemployed (who, by the way is not registered unemployed because Social Security aren’t prepared to pay him income support…but I digress!). Seems like it’s beating us after all!
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A nice idea.
However,as the politicians found out in the UK, having people on training courses reduces the numbers on the unemployment register…
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Comment 1 KB Joke –
So there we are…that’s at least one person unemployed (who, by the way is not registered unemployed because Social Security aren’t prepared to pay him income support
I’m sorry to hear that your husband lost his job and sorrier still to find that he does not qualify for assistance from social security. Presumably he has paid into the system all his working life, perhaps he is local, he may even have saved some money to provide for such an eventuality. The social security system was never intended to assist such individuals, it exists to give £15,000 worth of handouts to Eastern European’s working for minimum wage who have wives and families to support.
Now if you had pi**ed it all away and spat a few kids out you couldn’t afford to keep then it would have been there for you, serves you right for not being a waster.
Think twice – sack a local
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KBJoke #1
Perhaps your husband should lower his sights a bit.
Get a job that is “beneath” him, after all 2 years out of work after getting the sack tends to suggest he is barking up the wrong tree as far as his preferred line of work is concerned.
Perhaps he should embrace the retraining as a way back to being a useful member of society.
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No 1.
Your husband can still register as unemployed even though he does not get income support, but there is probably not much point in bothering to do so.
Does your husband, like me, get a bill from social security of £1,367.25 for social security contributions each quarter?
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PJG#4
Very many thanks for your comments. Unfortunately, for you, you don’t have the full picture so have (in my opinion) chosen to use his ‘story’ as a means to rant about something which is clearly already bothering you. My husband would love nothing more than to become a ‘useful member of society again’. He has completely, in your words, lowered his sights and aswell as applying for those jobs he is trained to do (which are few and far between and practically non existent in Jersey) he is also applying on a more than regular basis for any jobs he can within the local market. To date, he has been turned down from jobs ranging from telephone customer service assistant, tele-sales and shop work – why? wish we knew but I’m only assuming that it’s because the company he is applying to work for feels that given his lack of experience, and perhaps his career history, he may not be best placed in a market that is already saturated by people who are, aswell as the fact that he would more than likely leave should a job in his field of work come up. It’s hard to know as with this recession has come a new wave of ‘we don’t give feedback if you are unsucessful’ so its hard to act upon. You will also note that he isn’t receiving any form of income support so quite frankly the only people suffering because of his lack of employment are us. You will also note that he wasn’t ‘sacked’ but made redudant. Perhaps you would like to come and spend a day in our lives to see how stressful unemployment and all the emotional and practical difficulties that come with it are. You may, also, like to take a look at my husband’s emails from the last (nearly) 2 years as I’m sure the thousands of emails and job applications he has sent and the thousands of rejections (when he hears back at all) he has received may help put your mind at rest that he is trying to become a useful member of society.
My point, in the main, was that nobody can beat this and to remind people that we really ARE in a recession and that Jersey hasn’t avoided it despite these headlines. I simply used my husband’s plight to illustrate our situation amongst all this. Perhaps, like you, I simply needed a rant!
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KBJoke#6 please reread the article,
“Advance Plus will offer people aged 20 and above an eight-week programme of training and work experience in areas of work where there are known vacancies”
This is a fast track rout to retrain for a KNOWN VACANCY.
What more can be done for the long term unemployed.
You appear to be rubbishing it, why, surely it’s exactly what your husband needs, is he going to sign on for it?
I have permanently employed 3 people in the last 18 months.2 of them are now part of a company training program for advancement to an achievable 40k/50k PA with overtime.
Had there been people available with the skills I need willing to start at the bottom I would have employed them instead.
If your husband is willing to do anything and has still been unemployed for 2 years he “IS” doing something wrong. This may be a way of him beating the recession.
And sincerly, good luck.
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Simple question – what are the States or any other business doing for those people who DO NOT want to spend their working life in an office, where are all these incentives – they do not exist because they do not fit the States clouded view of 21st century Jersey – get out while you can! ! !
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