Job Centre casually letting me down again.

Good job as always...

21st November 2011

Dear Kingston Jobcentre Plus,

I am writing to make a formal complaint about how my claim has been handled within the last few weeks. Since the lead up to and beginning my unpaid internship with Ink Global Publishing, I believe that Jobcentre Plus has been both incredibly unhelpful and unsupportive.

Having attended a meeting with my advisor today, it was only then that I was alerted that my claim had been closed, with no prior notice at all. Perhaps the first thing that has annoyed me is the fact that I was allowed to attend the meeting and had made the effort to travel to the centre and missed almost the entire morning that day at the internship – which affects how I may appear to my employer and therefore what I may get out of the experience, which is the whole point of carrying out the internship in the first place!

The only statement that came close to meeting a real explanation for essentially wasting my time was that I was aware that my claim 'might' be closed. However, my response to this is that 'might' does not account for official confirmation and does not allow me to know where I stand with my claim at all. In fact, I was even allowed to assume that I was able to carry on as normal.
No effort was made to contact me prior to the close of my claim and it must be understood that first and foremost, I rely on the income that Jobseeker's Allowance provides to continue the internship, which was only carrying on for a further week and a half anyway.

Before beginning the internship I was asked to provide many different vague pieces of documentation, which never seemed to be correct or satisfactory. This meant that on the first day of the internship, before I had even settled in, I had to ask my supervisor to write me a letter outlining the internship for Jobcentre Plus. In terms of common sense, I hope you will understand why this would have been awkward for me. Too many people were involved in the process of how we would go about dealing with this situation and I find it hard to believe that I would be the first Jobcentre customer to come across these circumstances. This is of a particularly poor standard considering that there was no ultimate resolution despite what should have been arguably combined knowledge.

The internship will go on to finish at the end of this month, in this time I would have only visited the Jobcentre twice, and my job search has been ongoing while on the internship. Ink provided me with a lot of flexibility which would mean I would have been allowed to attend meetings outside of the internship if I had needed to. The lack of communication and overall bad organisation of this situation has resulted in me believing that I would have been better off not informing the Jobcentre of this internship at all, particularly regarding funding myself during the process.

Ink's system for internships is structured and I think it was inconsiderate to try and make them change it when I already had a guaranteed month of work experience with them. I think it is disgraceful that I was allowed to continue thinking that my claim was still open as well as attend the meeting this morning. I am unsatisfied with how the Jobcentre has supported me both within this internship and overall during my Jobseeking process. This internship with Ink has been more beneficial to my current training and work experience than any alternative that has been offered to me by Jobcentre Plus could end up being (Admin assistant roles/banking etc). I understand that my creative background is particularly competitive but therefore think that I should be nurtured when I do find work experience rather than shunned and let down.

I will be making a rapid reclaim as suggested but would ask that more careful consideration be taken to my case as I feel that I have been dealt with very unsympathetically. I would also hope to receive a higher level of communication both between myself and advisors and those advising them; something I believe to be the root of this complaint.

Thank you very much for your time and I hope to hear back from you shortly.

Yours sincerely,




Ruth Johnston

What every graduate should feel about graduate fairs.

On Tuesday afternoon I ladened myself with printed CV's and a map and headed over to Islington for the London Graduate Fair.

It's quite clear now that I needn't have bothered. Having read an article on youth unemployment on the Financial Times online the night before, I tried to remain undeterred by the mention of disheartening graduate fairs, this one was going to be different. Apart from it wasn't, and I did end up feeling stupid; I wasted my money by travelling there and all I got was a couple of free pens and some 'best employer guides' produced by people who weren't even there!
The split between Universities offering post-graduate courses compared to actual jobs was disgraceful. Additionally, without meaning to sound rude but it's going to happen anyway, the jobs on offer were hardly life-changing and only left the ultimate feeling that you may as well have tried your luck at working in a supermarket for the last four years because you definitely would be somewhere by now and not have to be attending this farse.

I'm not saying that as a graduate I am automatically entitled to 'better jobs' but when I attend a graduate fair I would expect to see a range of employers offering more than retail or sales roles. These aren't really graduate jobs and I feel sorry for those that were eating it up. No one is inspired by call centre roles and I don't know anyone who would list those kinds of jobs as their ultimate dreams.
I am aware of the lack of jobs out there, but why would you even advertise it as having lots of potential employers, when really it is a sea of universities, job search engines and volunteering roles.



I got suckered in to signing up to be a teacher, because it's my fall-back plan if I am still unemployed by next July. However, I'm not taking the aforementioned application any further, can you tell I have no desire to be an ICT teacher? I know there are Art & Photography teaching positions available, in fact if I had a PCGE already, I would probably be totally set up by now. So why should I settle for a job that is completely irrelevant when there are plenty available that are, it actually baffles me.

The overall feeling from both myself and Moon was anger, we were lied to and I don't think that that's a particularly farfetched exaggeration. Perhaps I knew there wouldn't be a lot of employment opportunities, but I didn't expect UCAS Fair: Take two. After taking part in 'Walk 4 Work' and demonstrating that I want to be employed and that I am pro-active and good enough, this took all that away and made sure that I knew I'd wasted my time and should just go and hide at another university for another year.




For a 'graduate fair' there were certainly no graduate schemes on offer, people were herded around the Apple stand when all they had to offer was retail and eventual management roles. There will be people who need these jobs, who don't mind if they put their degree/passion on hold for the next 5-10 years, but I'm not ready to settle and I'm not ready to take something as pointless as this event lying down.

My advice for graduates; never bother with one of these, you don't need it and you're better than that. You've done a degree and you've worked hard and you don't need to be made to feel like an idiot, especially if you've dressed up for it and especially not for a free pen and some books that you will never read.

I was so mad, I even made a video about it on the ride home.

Since 'Walk 4 Work' there has been a lot of press coverage on both this issue and the overall problem of youth unemployment, this can only be a positive thing and hopefully encourage future events like this to be more positive and productive for it's uninspired attendees.

646: Post-Battlefront update.

Nothing exciting to really talk about but as a result of my involvement with Walk 4 Work, I received a letter from HMV HR yesterday asking me to have a look at their jobs site. It's not a job offer, but I think that the fact they sent out letters demonstrates the impact that Battlefront and Ready 4 Work had on them.

More press featuring Ready 4 Work has also come out. We were in The Daily Mail and there was also an article on the BBC News website. It is nice to feel part of something, particularly something like this and especially when I was feeling so down about job hunting before.

(via The Daily Mail)

I'm going to try and 'get away from it all' today and take in some nature, I have a busy few days ahead of me too so it will give me some time to de-stress before re-stressing.

Serial Youth.

So my blog about Battlefront's Walk 4 Work has received a nice amount of attention since I posted it yesterday. Thanks to the Battlefront team for promoting it both last night on Facebook and again this morning on Twitter, that was really awesome of you.

I have also just been featured as a guest blogger over at The Employable. I've been in touch with The Employable for a while over Twitter now so it was super nice of them to take a bit of interest. Their message is the same as Ready 4 Work's just because you're unemployed, does not mean that you're unemployable. The Employable's blog features tips on how to keep yourself motivated while on a job hunt, as well as interesting articles relating to interview tips and employability. With regular guest posts as well as 25 years combined management, recruitment, sales and HR experience, it's hard to not listen.

Check out The Employable, maybe they'll help you on your job hunt and they will definitely help perk you up.

Follow The Employable on Twitter.
Like The Employable on Facebook.

Channel 4 Battlefront presents: Ready 4 Work.

Aside from needing to not being on the internet to preserve my sanity, if you happened to be wondering, another reason that I have been a bit MIA over the last few days is because yesterday I took part in T4 Battlefront: Ready 4 Work's Walk 4 Work campaign.

I'm just above the 'R' in 'FOR'.
Photo credit: Channel 4

Ready 4 Work is a campaign under Channel 4's online and television project, Battlefront. The campaign seeks to give a voice to NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training) aged 18-25, to prove we're not lazy and we're willing to make a pro-active difference in our job hunt.
The Walk 4 Work part was an act to further demonstrate Ready 4 Work's message, head campaigners Joseph and Hafsah want to make a dent in the 973,000 figure placed upon youth unemployment.







It was a really interesting experience, learning about the work that goes into the production of a television programme, as well as hearing everybody's different stories. I think I might even be on telly, so that will be fun. My star-status is already on the rise (jk), with a headshot and quote in The Independent today. I think it's a very important message though and I would love to do something similar again, standing nose-to-back with Charlie Simpson is just oh too exciting.

My face wasn't in the Metro but I did get a whole three sentences in The Independent so...

The march ended at the Houses of Parliament where Joseph and Hafsah went in to talk to the employment minister, Chris Grayling. Grayling was in full support of the campaign and has promised to get the Job Centre to work alongside Battlefront to create 1000 work placements (source).
I think that the whole day helped to make me feel as though not being the only one isn't a negative thing, and I learnt that everyone hates the Job Centre, everyone. I think we were creating a lot of positive attention while walking on the streets as well so it's quite exciting really and what's been written today about the campaign only adds to the value of the message.
I also got a free bowler hat, t-shirt and pin out of it so if nothing else but the photos I'm sharing with you now, I will also have physical objects to always remember the day I Walked 4 Work.




To find out more about Ready 4 Work as well as additional campaigns run by Battlefront, please visit the Battlefront website.

Today was exciting.

Here is a photo of me outside a Job Centre behind Ms Dynamite and Charlie Simpson.

(via Battlefront on Twitter)

More from me to come soon, as well as some more press stuff relating to Battlefront's Ready 4 Work Walk 4 Work campaign.
I'm so tired and have to face up to my earliest Job Centre Plus meeting so far, so updates will have to wait as I relax and recover from today's exciting events.

Suddenly!

So, after being mega-unhappy for the first half of last week, I'm apparently super-busy until tomorrow evening (but more likely Tuesday afternoon). I have a load of things to share including a weekend post, a couple of reviews, a fair amount of photos and other things that I've probably forgotten about.

I hope I'm not building tomorrow up to be more than it is, but I'm marching as part of T4 Battlefront's Ready 4 Work campaign for NEET's aged 18-24. It's sounds like a pretty worthwhile cause and I'm getting a bacon buttie out of it, so it's worth the 7am start to get there for 9am tomorrow. The prospect of being on the telly is bit weird, and I probably won't even be. I've been told to dress 'boardroom' which is horrible because I just threw what I've chosen together and I don't even know if it's working.
I thought I'd mention it now to save further explanation later, if I'm even allowed to take photos tomorrow.

Here is a photo of my face when it was covered in bites at the beginning of the week, I guess the hot weather made the mosquitos come out, I have no idea what October thinks it's playing at!

I have a lot more to talk about too but I'm knackered from what proved to be quite an exhausting weekend. Not to mention X Factor, HOW is Frankie still in?! I don't even know what I did for telly on Saturday nights while X Factor was away. My current personal favourites are Rhythmix.