Ok, I will try to keep the background very brief.
I graduated last summer. I am 26, as I worked before I decided to go back to University. After Uni, I decided to stay on in London to get some work. My Uncle had promised that he was going to get a good job in the City. Then
the September bailouts and bubble busting began. Cut short, my chances went up in smoke. Still in London I was forced to sign on (I still think my uncle could have twisted a few arms, but...). After a while I decided staying in London living on ****all was just too much. I went to live back with my dad, who lives 'up North'.
This is when I heard from a friend abroad who suggested becoming qualified in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). Alas, I didn't/do not have the money as they cost upwards of £1000 plus.
So I went to the local JC+ where I now was based and asked my New Deal advisor about whether I could get funding for this course, as it would mean that I would be off benefits in no time and seeing the world. I did actually have a job lined up abroad if I got this course.
Anyway, my advisor which I will call 'Bob' is just about the most useless and so lacking in his knowledge of the job it is a joke, frankly!
No, I take that back. He knows his job in terms of what he CANNOT do to help you. Anything you ask of in terms of funding, or anything of use you ask Bob is met with: 'I don't think so', 'I would not know about that' or 'I'll have to get back to you about that'-which he never does by the way. He is an elderly Welsh guy and has a Welsh drawl to his answers which makes all the more irritating, I am Welsh also by the way. In short he has been so utterly useless I would write about even more about how and why, but I don't want to bore anyone to tears too much.
Anyway, enough of the background, my worries are as follows:
1. I am due to begin Stage Four of this new New Deal in about a weeks or so, and seem to be reading a lot of people who are being pushed in to work experience nonsense just to 'fix' the numbers etc...
I am worried that I might be pushed in to this. I just need to find out a way of getting funding out of the tossers. I have had lies and bullshit for so long. I even went to my local MP, not to complain, but to see if he could find out whether funding was available. He wrote to some area JC+ office and got a response back stating that no-one could remember me asking about funding. My MP sent me a copy of the letter. I presented it next time I signed on. Where the letter stated that the 'manager' was a male, I was informed that actually the manager was a female. The Ass. Manager took a copy of my letter. Guess what? never heard anything back about it!
Sorry, ranting there.
I would just love to hear from anyone who would know if I can get funding out of these guys. I know of a case where someone got funding for the exact course I want to do. Bob told me 'ah, that was probably because he was on 'old' New Deal'. Bob has also implied that these Stage 4 outsourced companies 'might' be able to provide funding'?! The problem is that I simply do not believe a word that anyone from DWP says to me anymore. They lie to you as though, because you are jobless, you are thick, stupid and gullible to boot.
2. Can I expect anything more than just being treated like a feckless moron on Stage 4. Before Anyone might suspect me to be some wealthy brat who has money anyway, believe me, it is quite untrue. To say that I was strapped is an understatement. But now I am seriously in debt and just don't see how working for free, like anyone else, is supposed to increase anyone's self-esteem. I, like many others, need funding for courses to help make us competitive in the jobmarket, or guidance and support. Not, rather, to treat us like vermin and hope that that will force us in to some dead-end job, just to escapse the treatment of the DWP! Sorry, went on quite abit. Kind regards.
