Made redundant recently. What the heck just happened at the Job Centre?

Nix said:
I disagree.

I'm currently studying for something similar and I'm completely entitled to mention that on my CV as many people do. Employers understand the difference between attained and working towards.
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Agreed. If it's relevant to the field and recognised by the employer it looks better to have it there.
 
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What kind of level are you actually looking for job wise in IT?

If you are looking for advancement in the industry (big business with room to move) then you either start low and work into server work or already have proper qualifications/experience.

On a side note looking applications in entryish level IT are rubbish unless you plan training them yourself, do comptia and such not teach them what DNS is?
 
Just ask to speak to her manager as she has no idea what shes on about.

Grind her into the floor with your superior knowledge :)
 
asim18 said:
Yep what you're saying is completely right. The thing is I put that line "currently studying for MCP" just to show employers I'd actively like to remain in IT and I'm not just sitting on my arse between jobs. In no way does it interfere with my eligibility for JSA.

It's literally like saying "I am currently studying Harry Potter books".

The advisor is simply seeing the word "studying" and isn't comprehending the whole sentence properly. It isn't even in the education section of my CV.

Its just utter lunacy. I'm not going to cater my CV for a bunch of illiterate immigrants working at a dodgy Job Centre just so I can get my entitlement, I'm going to cater it for potential employers.
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Some (many) advisors will have a very poor understanding of the IT sector generally and not understand the way many of the specific industry led qualifications can be gained. One of the biggest faults of those working in jobcentres is believing they are experts in every occupational sector - simply not possible especially in more specialist sectors typified by IT, pharmaceuticals and specialist or high tech manufacturing.

Its not utter lunacy per se but it seems both you and the advisor lack the communication skills to sort this out - these being for you to effectively and calmly outline your circumstances and for her to adequately explain why she needs more information from you in a reasonable fashion. It should be easy enough to explain next time you go in, bearing I mind what I have written previously. She is concerned you may be a full time student, you need to reassure her that you are not.
 
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asim18 said:
Her head still tilted down towards the CV on her desk, she makes eye contact through the top of her reading glasses, then grabs a blank appointment card. "You have untill the 25th to provide me with your course details and the names of your servers." then hands me the appointment card.

I leave absolutely bamboozled at what just transpired.
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Why leave if she is incorrect and is asking you to come up with something impossible. No matter how many times it took to explain I would have had to get her to understand what your doing.


if your statements are true then you need to tell her exactly what you do, not everybody is a pc nut or understands how things work. Usually they deal with people who do not care for finding a job or bettering there education using blags in some way probably like your comments (but your not blagging).

take in everything you have done / do. There is not much more you can do
 
It's actually a clever government ruse. They want the Job Centres to be as useless as humanly possible. The staff are trained to be combative, rude, and to make people uncomfortable. The more people they can scare away the better.

That way, you don't claim JSA, and you don't show up as unemployed on their figures. You drop off the radar and they can gloat about falling unemployment.

It's genius.
 
As it is not an official course you should not have mentioned it - you have made it sound like you are at University and looking to cheat the benefit system.
 
86JR said:
As it is not an official course you should not have mentioned it - you have made it sound like you are at University and looking to cheat the benefit system.
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I'm looking to cheat the system by being 100% honest? :p

You work at JCP by any chance? ;)

They're not gonna catch any real benefit thieves with that ideology, no wonder there's so many people actually cheating the system.
 
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I had the same thing a few years ago.

You're not allowed to do any courses, or be enrolled on any educational programme, at all while on JSA. You're not allowed to study towards any qualifications, basically.

If you do that they class you as "in education" and will suspend your JSA.

I had the same issue because I was doing a night-class one evening a week and was told this was unacceptable.

What do you expect? That the Job Centre is actually there to help people? Haha, funny joke.
 
Castiel said:
She sounds a bit mental....just full in the form stating that you are self studying for the MCP and using your own server. I don't see that its really any of there business other than that.

Do you even need the job centre to find a job?
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Nope not really. Just need some cash to live off while I'm looking for another role. Luckily still living with mum :o
 
My old advisor had a heart attack while at work, not severe thankfully, but she now has more pressure on her to fulfill her quota, and a job evaluation. So the job centre sucks.

I wont even get into some of the stuff they were making me do/attend while i was working (albeit part time) and the any excuse to strike you off for as long as possible because they are deluged in people claiming.
 
It doesn't make any sense if you assume that the purpose of job centres is to help people find jobs.

It makes sense if you assume that the purpose of job centres is to prevent people claiming benefits.
 
It is the purpose for the job centre to help people get jobs!

BUT!!!!...... they are nothing more than glorified customer service agents who check you are searching and will sign you.

This is how they are run now and this leads to a system were people just come in to claim and end up repeating it constantly and getting nowhere.

Such a useless system!

I use to work as a EC at a work programme provider and that was horrible they were so unethical.

I hope they all loose there contracts because they dont care about the clients either.
 
You've confused here. This is what I'd do..

  • Change the CV so it says "working towards.."
  • Take your personal study materials in and state that you aren't enrolled anywhere

Good luck!
 
Play the game: Do nothing more than you are asked for them. It wont win you favour.

I imagine they are well trained these days to identify cost savings and close fraudulent new claims down asap.

Just take it off the CV or rephrase it so the dumb ass can understand it.
 
Take it off your CV and do it in your own time, if it's not an offical training course you have nothing to worry about?

You do hear a lot of negativity about the JC though, all about making sure they don't lose their own jobs through some technicality. Maybe if the Tories stopped demonising the unemployment and actually started helping them find work then it would be a better solution. As for the work program providers, them seem to be pretty useless also. Remember watching a documentary about how they were cooking the books to try and reach targets.
 
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FoxEye said:
I had the same thing a few years ago.

You're not allowed to do any courses, or be enrolled on any educational programme, atestablishment deliveringn JSA. You're not allowed to study towards any qualifications, basically.

If you do that they class you as "in education" and will suspend your JSA.

I had the same issue because I was doing a night-class one evening a week and was told this was unacceptable.

What do you expect? That the Job Centre is actually there to help people? Haha, funny joke.
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Your second paragraph is not accurate. You can do part time study (a course of less than 16 hours a week classroom/contact time that is also categorised as part time by the establishment delivering the course) and still get JSA, so long as you prioritise getting a job. This means that you must be willing to take up a job if offered and give up the course or rearrange the hours of study. You must still be available for work and able to prove you are actively seeking work throughout.

I can't comment on the specifics of your own case though. What I will say is that the rules around benefit entitlement and study are rarely communicated well.
 
I don't have any advice that hasn't already been mentioned. But good luck trying to find a new job. Redundancy ducks.
 
They view education the same as employment. Basically if they think your at college you are not available for work during those times so your not seen as a job seeker.

You have done nothing wrong it is just the numpties that don't understand what is pretty clear to me and others.

There was a great post on a Facebook page from a guy who has just walked out of his Jobcentre position as he felt his role was no longer to help people find work but find reasons to sanction and cut benefits.

I wish I kept it as he had links to competitions being run in certain offices with prizes for the adviser who had sanctioned the most people in a month.

Obviously I can't verify whether it is true or not but it looked pretty genuine to me.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/25/jobcentre-newsletter-sanctions-targets

Just play the game and do everything to the letter that they ask you. Take it off the CV you give them then keep it on the ones you give to potential employers.
 
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