Government help for jobless? Don’t believe a word …

The PM & Government are feeding us mistruths at a time when they should be bending over backwards to instil confidence and trust to a nation in despair. They deliver us pomposity, unclear and unkept promises and a trail of propaganda about how they are doing everything they can to help the unemployed. Today, I’m going to talk about the elephant in the room.

The vast majority of job seekers are decent, honest people who given the opportunity will thrive to the benefit of their families and employers. It’s devastating to lose your job, your position, your pride and your ability to make a worthwhile contribution. There are people with an array of important skill-sets out there and too many of these talented hard workers are without jobs and having to sign on the dole.

What makes me the expert? Well, I’ve experienced all sides of the fence - I’ve been an employee, I’ve had 20 years in recruitment and I’m a small business owner. I’ve witnessed the fear of losing a job, I’ve seen in others the devastation being without a job brings and its consequences. So Mr Brown & Co, I can speak, I can put my view, I can make judgments because I have acquired knowledge and common sense. You can disagree with me, frankly I don’t care, I’ll still have my say, just stop reading if I bore you.

Mr GB actually said he intends to “maximise the chances of the unemployed getting jobs”. Soundbites with no substance and no clear intentions.

In Nov 08 I wrote to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, with a similar letter sent to the MarComs Director at Train to Gain (sent both by email and post) and then subsequently to the Office of the Director of External Relations for JobCentrePlus. All of these organisations had spent and are spending obscene amounts of money on media advertising extolling the virtues of their wonderfulness. Except for the fact that they aren’t doing enough to help the unemployed either get jobs or retrain.

Our letter set out how, as an experienced business with an online recruitment facility, we were keen to be of help AT NO COST to them. We told them how we were self funded and were going to be building (at our expense) a part of our website to be dedicated to training & education. Being commercially aware, we know that a lot of employers would not advertise directly with JobCentrePlus and so we could do our part to bridge the gap if they allowed job seekers to be able to see our site and the jobs our clients had to offer, by simply having a link on their site. This had a three way benefit – the jobseeker gains access to a bigger choice of proper full time jobs, the employer could get their job filled and we have satisfied our customers and by doing so will have repeat business - thus all three parts of this jigsaw would be putting money back into the economy. Win, win, win for everyone.

Proper jobs I hear you say? Yes, 25% of JobCentrePlus jobs are non-jobs i.e. part-time and under (sometimes well under) 16 hours a week.

So what response did I get from the great and the good? After I made some phone calls (I had no response from them) I found out from the Head of PR at UKCES that essentially they are a think tank (cos we need more think tanks) subsidised no doubt by a huge sum from you and I. The role of this qwango is to advise government that they should offer training. No, I’m not making it up.

As for Train to Gain, no courtesy of a response at all. JobCentrePlus were unprepared to step outside the comfort zone and actually do anything or take on board any suggestions because they have a system. A system that isn’t working, but a system nonetheless. A system you and I are paying for.

I don’t have all the answers, I can’t solve the problems, but I can do my bit to help and if just one family are given back their dignity then it’s all worth it. The problem is, I’m obstructed by the Government and its team of jobsworths and plebs (the most printable words I can use to describe them).