Fortunately thanks to the efforts of friends and families I am back on line .
The period has however shown me how much the Internet has entered my life and how dependent I am on it.
It also reminded me how much people may be loosing out if they can't enter the Internet regularly
For Job seekers it is now not only necessary but compulsory.
If you are on jobseekers allowance you now have have to use Universal Job Match UJJM and not only refer to it but register and regularly log on.
You have to have a CV and in reality using Microsoft Word ( it won't take open Office).
Even then as I found out the CV you upload ends up Unjustified . I had been spending Weeks sending of my CV via this method to potential employers before I discovered the Glitch. I mist have looked like a very poor applicant to Human resource Managers and reduced to bottom of the pile along with others who applied through UJM .
Also according to an article in Private Eye if you chose not to make your CV on UJM searchable it sent blank pages to the potential employers!
According to the Jobcenter you should treat this and other job searches as full time employment as full time and spend as much time as you would if you were fully employed about 35 hours a week doing this.
This is fine if you have access to your own computer and the Internet though it tends to get a bit soul destroying going through Employment Agency after Employment Agency only to find no suitable Jobs (or any) in your travel to work ates (90 minutes each way)...
But if you don't have a computer or yours crashes you are still expected to regularly use the Internet and
use the facilities in the jobcenter if they are available or your local library.
As I found despite the wonderful support of the Beddau Librarian my local Library is only open part time and competition for access can be intense especially during the Summer Holidays and it could be expensive to travel to your local jobcenter everyday to log on.
The point is that for the long term unemployed it could be a Catch 22 situation they can't afford a computer and pay a a ISP a monthly fee on their allowance and its only when they get a full time Job they can really afford to go on-line regally and seek work.
I don't know what the solution is but clearly the idea of job seekers going on line 5 hours a day 7 days a week is unrealistic a view probably shared with those a t the jobcenter but which they are not able to state.
Those on Job Seekers allowance must make great efforts when seeking work and use every avenue but it should be realised the obstacles that some might have and not set them targets they can not possibly meet.
Update 3:30 pm
By coincidence there s a article in the Wasting Mule with a A successful Welsh businesswoman labelling Jobcentres “completely useless” claiming she was inundated with applicants who did not really want jobs with her.
How many genuine jobseekers are lost in this mire as people apply for jobs desperate to reach their quota irrespective of their suitability?
What we need is to ensure that people are applying for positions bit realise that the reality of the limited opportunities out there.
Irrespective of the Woman 's experience above . What we need a real jobs to match real abilities.
3 comments:
There is no substitute for actual jobs, and they aren't out there. A friend of mine is constantly sent jobs in Cambridge (he lives in Cardiff) and the whole job seekers website is a joke, but then it always was. Propitiatory lock in is ludicrous and possibly illegal. I don't have windows or any Microsoft software, how dare they dictate what I should use to write my cv! I am fortunate that I am in work and have been for 10 years, but I had long periods of unemployment and have worked in situations where I worked with the unemployed trying to get them into work - this largely consisted of sending out hundreds of speculative letters. No wonder employers don't reply.
Cibwr On the CV issue I've been told my "advisor" that I should remove my degree from my CV for some job applications as I am Overqualified.
I've pointed that this could lead me to be dismissed for lying on my CV and how was I going the explain the gap?
May be its better to claim that you were inside for a number of years rather than studying at a University.
It would be laughable if it wasn't serious! We need jobs, and they are in short supply. In my experience the only program that did any good was the Community Program, which was voluntary and gave you 3 days socially useful work (everything from clearing grave yards to surveying the needs of elderly of social provision) at benefit + 50% and access to all passported benefits as if you were still on benefit levels of income. It kept people "in the work groove" and did something useful in the community. It was scrapped in the late 1980s because of cost and they said it didn't provide people with qualifications.
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