As someone who has been on a work placement and that see's people on them all the time I thought I'd give my opinion...
So I first heard of it a while back, she had to give up her volunteer work to do the work placement. One initial complaint was that she wasn't even going to get into retail anyway and her current volunteer position was something she was going to do in the long run.
That is something I do get, when I was made to go into retail I didn't really want to and I ended up getting stuck in retail.
But when I first heard it I did for a moment think that she felt she was above this work purely because she had a degree. Like somehow as one of the uneducated masses who didn't go to uni I deserved to do this but she didn't. I'm not saying that is what she said (don't make me say it twice!) but that is how it felt to me. So I didn't bother with the case again.
She won her case, I know as I look at Sky News every day, apparently the volunteer position would have led to a job, but now she's working in a supermarket.
Now I don't know if the volunteering position leading to a job was said by her or just on a radio news bulletin someone quoted, but I had big beef of people claiming this scheme stopped her from getting a job. Working somewhere that relies on volunteers, her taking two weeks off would not have stopped her getting a job. If there was a job ever she would have got it if they wanted her. But I don't know if she said that, I just wanted to rant that little bit off anyway.
I vaguely remember in the first article she said (as I've already said) that one reason, other than not being paid, was that she didn't want to go into retail. But now she is in retail, and I don't care what anyone says I know that the work placement on her CV would have helped get a retail job. I was turned down for many supermarket jobs for being "too clever" (shockingly as I didn't go to uni) or else being "under experienced" (shockingly as people think they take any brainless hack!) so the moment she added "worked in Poundland" on her CV she had a one up getting a supermarket job.
Now she, and the man the article talks about, weren't on the same scheme as me so I can't comment on their schemes.
My view on how this case has been presented to me in the press... To be honest I found her case to make me feel like some unwashed mass that can have anything done to me as long as people like her aren't on the same level. Now that isn't me saying that is how she felt, it is how the press wrote it. Always going back to her degree, that she was volunteering in the area she wanted to work in, that somehow working in Poundland is a terrible thing (well....) and never going near the murky waters of time wasters....
I'm happy she won her case though, as these things need to be sorted to a point. She was, to be fair on her, volunteering. Whether that would have led to anything is beyond me.
So over all. Congrats for the win, but I think the press went about it the wrong way. It was a way to open peoples eyes up to JSA, work schemes and how small minorities make life hard for the majority who are suffering.
But as always I want to put a disclaimer here that this is all based on what I've read. I've never seen the women, never talked to her, never even heard her speak about it, I've just read what has been reported online and based an opinion on it.
Now my experience.
Down here in the West Country these schemes usually kick in after 12 months. I was sent to A4e for mine and was sent to Poundland.
When I say sent what actually happened was before my A4e course I was asked to come in and they talked to me about what area I wanted to work in. I had to choose from a list of jobs that were general jobs, easy to get into. Personally I'd loved to have worked in a Library but that wasn't an option as jobs in that sector are quite rare. So I had brain freeze and panic'd and picked retail.
I then went on a 2 week confidence course which worked wonders. After that was my 8 weeks mandatory work placement.
At first I went to Poundland and instantly disliked it. Not because I thought it was beneath me or that I should be paid, but because the staff weren't exactly nice and most of them were quite creepy!
So within a week I had been moved from Poundland to where I work now.
I loved my new placement, and after my placement ended I luckily got a job there. I've been working for them ever since.
Now at times I felt a bit annoyed at having to work for nothing, especially at Poundland when I'd get it in the neck for not doing A,B or C whilst paid staff lounged around doing nothing. It seemed the manager was watching my every move and therefore not paying attention to the paid staff. But I never felt like that at my second placement. Everyone did the same job, OK some jobs only the paid staff could do but they'd never ask me to do something I didn't want to do.
For me it was great, I'd never had a job before, I had low self esteem and stutter when I talk and slur my words. A childhood of speech therapy hadn't solved these so I'm stuck with them for life, and it makes first impressions quite interesting. Nearly everyone on the course with me got employed by the placement they were in. The only ones who didn't, didn't want to find a job. One even got pregnant just because looking after a baby was easier then working (her words.)
For Poundland I didn't see the point of it, but working for a charity really did seem worthwhile!
Now I'm on the other side, I work with a lot of people who have been sent down here on placements. Our manager has never made anyone stay if they didn't want too, we have taster sessions to make sure this is were the people want to be.
Do I feel sorry for them if they don't turn up and lose benefits?
No.
I had to do it and I did. It is one of the countless schemes that they think up to try to get you into work. Sometimes it works, others it doesn't. But you grin and bare it and hope it helps. And as I've already said in the West Country these schemes don't kick in day 1 of benefits it takes nearly a year for it to happen.
It doesn't take much effort. I've been there done that and got the job at the end of it. Yes I was lucky, but a lot of people who have come through our doors have stayed on after their placement and found work soon after with glowing references from our manager that they've said helped a lot.
For some people it is their first job experience after a weeks work at school. Funnily enough no one has said the work experience at school is slave labor, yet you don't get paid at all for that! And your underaged.
A lot of people who come down to our shop love the fact they have something to do, now if your already volunteering then fair enough, but a lot of our work placements don't know the variety of volunteering jobs available to them. The old Oxfam clothes shop is so stuck in their head they don't know that there is anything different.
But working with them also makes you see the people that this scheme is trying to find.
People who come down to the shop and don't work, don't want to work and possibly will never work.
You just have to spend 5 minutes with them telling you how working interrupts their life to know that a real job would kill them.
I do think the scheme needs to be re-thought out. Not majorly so, but if someone is volunteering then let them be! They are doing something with their life, something that helps the community, taking them from a volunteering job to place them in a supermarket is pointless. Usually if they have volunteers they NEED them. So on that front I agree so much with this lady.
You can't lump every person on benefits into one group, but that works both ways. Not every job seeker is like you.
Some have never worked and like me was a bit timid about everything and needed this scheme to get them not only into work but help them with CVs and confidence.
Others would have worked for years and don't like being out of work.
Again still others will love not working and will want to stay on benefits as long as they can.
Everyone IS different, and the government is doomed one way or the other. They give benefits to people who "don't deserve them" but to smoke them out of their hole they need to treat all job seekers the same way.
If anything it gives people a structured life that yes maybe you as a job seeker kept after losing your job or leaving school, but others might not have had to begin with. It gives some people a slap of reality. It also opens doors to other people.
I really don't think these placements are like slavery. It might seem mean, it might seem out of order, but it is something that is needed. No adult likes to be treated like a kid or being told what to do, but some of these placements really do help and even if you don't get a job out of it at the end some charities that gain a volunteer for a few weeks are really grateful for the help!
In conclusion, I believe these things could work better, I don't think its such a terrible thing, but I'd agree it needs to be re-designed.
The problem is so many different people claim job seekers and like everything not one claimant is the same as the other. For every 10 honest hardworking person there is another who doesn't give a toss.
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