New Deal and Flexible New Deal Exposed

Does anyone read this?

Well the last few weeks of the course consisted of totally boring, unproductive jobsearch – all RAW DEAL courses’ favourite word. I completed my minimum 165 hours and actually elected to extend it to 192 hours, which involved me having to make a five mile trip to another site for most of those extra hours. I also told the Jobcentre that I’d be interested in Future Jobs Fund positions so I could stay off the dreaded Community Task Force.

My trainer actually found an apprenticeship that looked like it would suit me, and I actually thought something good might come of the 192 boring hours of timeserving, but alas, I screwed up at the interview and am left in the cold yet again with no other prospects on the horizon. Still, it was my second ever interview of my 23 years – Thanks Labour!

I find myself as unemployable as ever, and no amount of RAW DEAL courses can force someone to employ me. Evidently, I can’t bullshit my way through an interview. I am simply not experienced enough, despite having some smarts. There will always be better candidates than me. I seem doomed to go in circles with this rotten system, that allows immigrants to live in relative luxury with no questions asked, but makes us go through bullshit courses for the pittance we get from them.

I wouldn’t mind going back to college, except I’m having trouble finding an adult full-time course in the areas I’d be interested in, plus the lack of information on any adult student benefits I could claim. I’d rather go on a college course of my own choosing and get a different/less benefit, than continue on JSA and get drafted on to RAW REAL again. Its a one-way conveyor belt to the scrapheap.

The Jobcentre have told me there apparently are FJF positions with my local council. I attended a session at the Jobcentre last week and declared my interest in a few of the positions. They were supposed to get back to me at the beginning of this week – no calls. Typical. I hope I get something soon, as my JSA claim will reach 12 months in September and I’ll either be drafted again or cut off.

God, I hate this.