Over the summer I had anticipated that supply teaching was coming to a rapid end. The last academic year saw me only breaking even, financially. As more and more supply work is done "in house". Schools are now hiring non-qualified teachers to cover staff who were absent as a result my work has dried up. With this downturn I started to seriously look for another job throughout the summer. At the end of the July I found myself unemployed and signing on.
I found it very disheartening and hard to motivate myself after the initial rejection letters started coming into my inbox and letterbox. I was advised by the local job centre of a community action program to help the unemployed back to work. This scheme was run by the community centre but didn't have anything to do with the job centre.
I went along and met up with the staff. A lot of services from CV writing, advice and help with form filling, stamps, envelopes were available, none of which I really needed however, what I did need was an extra pair of eyes and a regular meeting with someone to review my job search. You might think the job centre do this, you'd be wrong, the job centre simply signed me on every fortnight and washed their hands of me. I would ask at the job centre if they'd found any jobs for me? to which they'd answer no.
This is a hard topic to write about because I don't want it to sound like I'm looking for someone to do all the legwork in finding me a job. I am quite capable of finding work, I'm well qualified and experienced. In this climate, however, any extra help I could get is greatly valued. I felt that the job centre didn't even try to help me look for work. Sure the Job Centres have job points on computer, but what they don't have is the human touch. The don't have a personal, professional person who will help. The computers only show a selection of the jobs at any one time. The Job Centres schemes also don't kick in until you've been unemployed 6 months. This, to me, is deeply unfair. I'm a lucky one, in many respects cos my idle hands will find a paintbrush and canvas, but others might turn to despair.
I attended the community centre and the project worker took all my details, scanning over my CV she quickly realised a lot of the facilities the centre offered I wouldn't need. I told her of the jobs I'd be interested in doing and arranged another appointment for the following week.
A week later I returned and she'd scanned all the papers and internet websites looking for work that was suitable for me. This included vacancies in the area I was looking for and also some that maybe outside of my comfort zone. This was great, even though a lot of the jobs she'd spotted I'd already spotted myself, there were one or two I hadn't seen. Her doing this job search helped validate my search - knowing someone else was along side me. Sometimes I felt like I was saying to people "there are no jobs out there... " and they didn't believe me. Were as here was someone independent who knew I was actively seeking employment.
Every week I'd log the number of hours I'd spend completing application forms and also our meeting duration. Her remit is to re-engage people in a job search, to help people back into work. She isn't paid on necessarily getting me a job, she is paid on providing the conditions that encourage and build up my confidence. The only condition was either that I completed 50 hours of job search or I got a full time job - this enabled her to get her funding.
Since this wasn't a Job Centre led scheme I could say to the community worker the areas that I didn't want to work in, without fear that it might effect my benefit. We met up once a week and compared our job searches, I explained what I'd done to find a job this week, and she logged it on her forms, she then presented the jobs she'd found - It was nice just to have someone to cast an extra pair of eyes, maybe finding that job that I might miss.
To Be Continued.....
A couple of weeks ago I got an email off the community worker asking me if I'd be interested in being on the community centre board of trustees and a committee member. "What does it involve?" I said with an idea that I'd be spending all my free time report writing and being a part of Cameron's Big Society (Sham). As it turned out my only obligation would be to attend monthly meetings. I would have a voice in the community centre, I could put forth some ideas and suggestions if needed, but more importantly it would be an opportunity for me to find out a bit more about the community centre, how it's run and funded. I agreed and attended the first meeting last Saturday morning.
It was really interesting meeting as the employees of the community centre gave a presentation to the board (12 members) and also to various members of the community and the public, detailing what the community centre have done over the last 12 months, also their running costs and income for the same period. The 12 board members then had to agree on a time to meet next month and we got to ask questions of the workers. For this meeting, I just sat and listened, met a few new people but didn't really have anything to add. I must admit though I didn't realise just how much the community centre is used by the local people. From Karate clubs to mother and toddler groups, art clubs and back to work groups, ICT classes and there is a cafe and a thrift shop too. I am really impressed with their facilities and the efforts people put in, freely to support the community.
I found it very disheartening and hard to motivate myself after the initial rejection letters started coming into my inbox and letterbox. I was advised by the local job centre of a community action program to help the unemployed back to work. This scheme was run by the community centre but didn't have anything to do with the job centre.
I went along and met up with the staff. A lot of services from CV writing, advice and help with form filling, stamps, envelopes were available, none of which I really needed however, what I did need was an extra pair of eyes and a regular meeting with someone to review my job search. You might think the job centre do this, you'd be wrong, the job centre simply signed me on every fortnight and washed their hands of me. I would ask at the job centre if they'd found any jobs for me? to which they'd answer no.
This is a hard topic to write about because I don't want it to sound like I'm looking for someone to do all the legwork in finding me a job. I am quite capable of finding work, I'm well qualified and experienced. In this climate, however, any extra help I could get is greatly valued. I felt that the job centre didn't even try to help me look for work. Sure the Job Centres have job points on computer, but what they don't have is the human touch. The don't have a personal, professional person who will help. The computers only show a selection of the jobs at any one time. The Job Centres schemes also don't kick in until you've been unemployed 6 months. This, to me, is deeply unfair. I'm a lucky one, in many respects cos my idle hands will find a paintbrush and canvas, but others might turn to despair.
I attended the community centre and the project worker took all my details, scanning over my CV she quickly realised a lot of the facilities the centre offered I wouldn't need. I told her of the jobs I'd be interested in doing and arranged another appointment for the following week.
A week later I returned and she'd scanned all the papers and internet websites looking for work that was suitable for me. This included vacancies in the area I was looking for and also some that maybe outside of my comfort zone. This was great, even though a lot of the jobs she'd spotted I'd already spotted myself, there were one or two I hadn't seen. Her doing this job search helped validate my search - knowing someone else was along side me. Sometimes I felt like I was saying to people "there are no jobs out there... " and they didn't believe me. Were as here was someone independent who knew I was actively seeking employment.
Every week I'd log the number of hours I'd spend completing application forms and also our meeting duration. Her remit is to re-engage people in a job search, to help people back into work. She isn't paid on necessarily getting me a job, she is paid on providing the conditions that encourage and build up my confidence. The only condition was either that I completed 50 hours of job search or I got a full time job - this enabled her to get her funding.
Since this wasn't a Job Centre led scheme I could say to the community worker the areas that I didn't want to work in, without fear that it might effect my benefit. We met up once a week and compared our job searches, I explained what I'd done to find a job this week, and she logged it on her forms, she then presented the jobs she'd found - It was nice just to have someone to cast an extra pair of eyes, maybe finding that job that I might miss.
To Be Continued.....
A couple of weeks ago I got an email off the community worker asking me if I'd be interested in being on the community centre board of trustees and a committee member. "What does it involve?" I said with an idea that I'd be spending all my free time report writing and being a part of Cameron's Big Society (Sham). As it turned out my only obligation would be to attend monthly meetings. I would have a voice in the community centre, I could put forth some ideas and suggestions if needed, but more importantly it would be an opportunity for me to find out a bit more about the community centre, how it's run and funded. I agreed and attended the first meeting last Saturday morning.
It was really interesting meeting as the employees of the community centre gave a presentation to the board (12 members) and also to various members of the community and the public, detailing what the community centre have done over the last 12 months, also their running costs and income for the same period. The 12 board members then had to agree on a time to meet next month and we got to ask questions of the workers. For this meeting, I just sat and listened, met a few new people but didn't really have anything to add. I must admit though I didn't realise just how much the community centre is used by the local people. From Karate clubs to mother and toddler groups, art clubs and back to work groups, ICT classes and there is a cafe and a thrift shop too. I am really impressed with their facilities and the efforts people put in, freely to support the community.
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