Unhappy Anniversary! Yes, it’s been 12 months since my last contract ended. Now: I could use this post to beweep my outcast state, or wonder why I can’t even get interviews for roles I could do way better than the people who get appointed (and who then leave six months later)… but I’m not.
Instead, I’m going to highlight something unhelpful to the unemployed: the Jobcentre Plus.
If you’ve had recent experience of one of these places, you’ll know what’s coming up.
The last time I was in my local was just before Christmas, where I had my usual 10-minute chat with a (not my) work coach. In passing she mentioned that the job market was the worst she’d seen in her time there. She also mentioned that one of the two people she’d seen the day before burst into tears with the frustration of not being able to find a new job.
Which got me thinking… about job clubs. Remember them?
The modern job centre is not as you see it in The Full Monty; people in conversation, Gerald updating his CV on the computer in the corner. You can’t get into mine without an appointment, for one thing. And if you haven’t got one you have to go online and send a message to your work coach – if you have one. And if it looks like you might cause trouble, two beefy gentlemen ready to turf you out.
It’s a processing centre – no more, no less. Come in for 10 minutes once a fortnight, and that’s your lot. Sometimes those 10 minutes are via video or phone. And on to the next.
As I’ve had to access my old workplace pension I now don’t qualify for Universal Credit, so I don’t even get the 10 minutes once a fortnight.
Job Clubs do still exist, but if you didn’t know what they were you couldn’t go searching for them. I raised this in my online journal with my work coach before they cut me off, and she said that they don’t offer that sort of service. But she also didn’t point me to anyone who did.
Job Clubs can do more than help you complete forms or tidy up your CV; they can be places for people with similar interests and issues to gather, have a tea, swap notes, and help each other as well as themselves. But without people being referred to them, they’re invisible to the job seeker.
It’s noticeable well that, while South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority has a Pathways to Work service which encourages individuals looking for help, West Yorkshire Combined Authority doesn’t. Guess which area I’m in? At the national level it’s consistently unhelpful; regionally it’s consistently inconsistent.
Support for the individual. It’s the one thing we’re really missing as a consistent offer. Not just “go away and do this” but “come, in, sit down, how are you?” support. I wouldn’t mind some myself about now…