Training history
Before getting serious
During The nineties job quest, I did some re-training, attending a C programming course, a business administration course and a course that gave me ideas for CV presentation and other useful tips. I also practised Visual Basic extensively for several months. Following my 2002 redundancy, I realised that I would need much more re-training so I wanted to pay much more attention to it. Soon after my redundancy, I bought a self-teach training package that didn't work properly on my computer. Maybe I bought it in haste. I wish that I'd taken more time in selecting a package.
"New Deal" then web design
To begin with, I was interested in trying out the ideas that various government agencies suggested. New Deal seemed like a worthwhile scheme but, as you now know, I've learned differently since. Still, I only discovered this by trying it out and I gave it a fair chance on the first time that I tried it. My next step, even as I headed towards Bankruptcy, was to enrol for a training course at Leicester College. I didn't get my first choice of a Java programming course because only one other person wanted to do it, so I did the basic web design course that I'd booked as a standby when I was told that my first choice course might be cancelled. Although limited in its scope, the web design course taught me enough about HTML and CSS that I could build on via textbooks and e-mail exchanges with cyber-friends who had set up their own websites. I'm therefore able to set up websites and blogs that may not be sophisticated in design terms but do at least show that I can use modern technology. They also prove that I'm not stupid or lazy, so (since I'm not a parent, let alone feckless, either) I don't fit the Stereotypes about unemployed people. Meanwhile, after completing the web design course, I took the opportunity to attend a CLAIT database course during the summer term.
No SAGE (yet)
So far, so good, but from here on in, government interference accelerated. It seems that, at every turn, my efforts to re-train to give me the best chance of returning to work have been thwarted although changes in college policy didn't help either. In the year following my web design course, college policy changes meant that there were no suitable web design or programming courses for me, so I planned to attend a SAGE course about computerised accounts, having been assured that it wasn't necessary to know anything about accounting to do the course as long as it was obvious that I had the talent. Success might have opened up a wider selection of job possibilities although fully-fledged accountants require qualifications that take up several years' training. In particular, I might have been successful at the job interview described in my page about EXCEL spreadsheets if I'd been able to show that I'd been on a SAGE course. I abandoned plans to do that apparently desirable and useful course when I was told to see another agency, Next Step, who are specialists in giving career advice to unemployed people. I figured that if I attended the SAGE course, it might get in the way of Next Step's plans for me. I wanted to give them a clear run so they had the best possible chance to help me. Silly me. Do not confuse Next Step with the placement agency, though both are equally inept.
Forklift trucks
At my first proper meeting with Next Step, I discussed my future prospects with another man who'd started out as a computer programmer. Unlike me, he'd progressed up the career ladder into management. Before the meeting, I was full of anticipation as I felt that he'd be able to relate to my position. It didn't work out that way because it became clear that he was bitter about his own redundancy and subsequent inability to stay in the computer industry. He'd been obliged to lower his sights somewhat to take the job with the agency. OK, so we all accept that we have to lower our sights when we're out of work, but he wanted me to abandon any hope of ever getting back into the computer business. I wasn't ready to do that and probably never will be. Of course, I look at other possibilities, but those are additional options, not replacements. Even with all the ageism within the IT industry, together with my lack of employment since the eighties, the fact remains that it is the only industry that I have real experience of. If I am ever to get a different type of job, I need to be shown a credible alternative.
Anyway, I was advised to try forklift truck driving. Although I found the suggestion incredulous because I can't drive a car despite having plenty of driving lessons in the seventies. I nevertheless tried driving a forklift truck when an opportunity arose soon afterwards as I explain in Career options in factories and warehouses. I'll try anything once, but the episode showed that my chances of getting back into IT, remote as they may be, are better than my chances of becoming a forklift truck driver.
Over-qualified
Following that meeting, I had a meeting with a different person from Next Step. This time I was pressurised into agreeing to attend a personal development course that I wasn't keen on, especially as I'd learned all about formatting a CV and other stuff during The nineties job quest. I nevertheless attended the course but it didn't help me. The same person then booked me on to a NHS administration course, which came with a guaranteed interview upon successful completion. This sounded fine although I was fast losing faith in Next Step. I went along to the preliminary tests but was told at the end that I was too good for the course. Apparently, the course was designated Level 1 and I was already at Level 3 because of my GCE "O" levels. Of course, this is silly because I'd still have learned some new stuff, especially relating to first aid, that I didn't already know. And if it was that easy, I'd have a good chance at any subsequent interview at least where raw ability was concerned. Personality counts too, but it all depends what an interviewer is looking for. My personality is what it is and won't change much at my age. Nevertheless, I was not allowed to attend the course and Next Step gave up on me. Perhaps they were embarrassed at sending me to the NHS in the first place, not having checked the admission rules. By this time, it was too late to revive my SAGE course plan and the subsequent summer courses didn't offer anything that appealed to me.
Given that the government is keen for unemployed people to lower their sights, isn't it strange that the state-run NHS should pursue a policy that prevents people from going on courses that they are supposedly over-qualified for? Perhaps more than anything else, this is a clear example of the difficulty that somebody with my kind of background faces in trying to get back to work. I am inevitably over-qualified for any supposedly low-grade job that I apply for. If the government expects me to look seriously for such jobs, it ill-behoves them to put obstacles in my way in state-run organisations.
No ECDL
When I'd provisionally planned to do the SAGE course, it was partly because I hadn't found a suitable ECDL course, but next time round and with no suitable programming courses on offer either, I found the ECDL course that I was looking for. ECDL covers a variety of computerised office packages including word processing, spreadsheets, databases and other stuff. I know about half of it already but getting a certificate showing that I'd done the whole range covered by ECDL might be useful in applying for general office jobs. ECDL and CLAIT cover much of the same ground in different ways, but while it is possible to do CLAIT modules individually, it isn't possible to do ECDL that way. Nevertheless, I believe that ECDL is regarded more highly than CLAIT so that's why I'd prefer to do ECDL. Note that neither ECDL nor CLAIT cover computerised accounts, so SAGE would still be a useful extra. Unfortunately, I had to abandon plans to do ECDL when I learned that I was to be forced back on to New Deal. Perhaps one day, I'll get a chance to do courses that would help me, but by then it'll probably be too late to use them to give me any chance of finding a job.
Last real chance gone
To my mind, my last real chance to book up a college training course was for the 2008/2009 educational year, but in the event, the only college courses that interested me came at too high a price for me. The time for formal training to get back to work has probably passed anyway, given my age.
Finally on a SAGE course
I finally got on a SAGE course in September 2010. It ends in May 2011, by which time I'll be less than two years away from qualifying for pension credits. Being pensioned off won't preclude me from getting a job, but it will mean that the government and the agencies working for it will no longer be interested in me. Without their interference, I'll have a free hand and that will have its advantages, but having been out of work for so long - more than ten years by then if I haven't found a job in the meantime - it's really difficult to see how I could find work then if I haven't done so beforehand. Still, although the SAGE course has probably come too late, going on it doesn't do any harm and it may do some good even if it doesn't help me into a job.
In any case, it didn't take long for the SAGE course to confirm all my worst fears about education and training in the UK these days, so that is another issue worth highlighting.
1 comment:
Well done! I really admire someone like you who isnt't lazy and drowning in their sorrows because they haven't got a job, you are actually going out there and trying to re-train yourself and gather the skills you need to get another job. You are someone unemployed people should look up to and follow in your foot steps, keep up the good work. Good luck in the future. Walter.
Post a Comment