CAREER START .... NO THANKS!!!!

Initially when I started Career choice I believed it was just a series of work placements designed to give people some idea of what they would like to do when they left school. However I quickly discovered that career choice was followed by what they called “Career start”.

Career start was described as a “job with training” but I would still only be paid the same 40 pounds a week training allowance. I did ask if the money would go up at anytime during the two years and the two women who ran Career choice seemed very vague on this.

As soon as it was described to me it sounded identical to the infamous YTS (youth training scheme) of the 1980s. I had been warned by lots of people at the time about these training schemes. While a handful of people did do well (including a friend of mine who is now a well paid plumber) a lot of them didn’t. The problems were as follows.......

1) You are sent to a company under the guise of “training” when the reality is that you are just exploited for cheap labour and given the jobs to do that nobody else wants. I already had this experience on my final work placement at Thomassen.

2) You earn 40 pounds a week, this is only 2 pounds a week a more than you would get sitting at home on unemployment benefit while looking for a job. Any expenses such as travelling to work would make you instantly worse off than not having a job at all.

3) You work 40 hours a week for a pittance, at the time 100 pounds a week was an average wage for a low end job such as stacking shelves in a supermarket.

4) You work harder than your co workers earning a proper wage as you are trying your hardest to be employed by the company.

5) 58 percent of people (see article below) leave early because they are sick of working for low wages.

6) At the end of it there is no job and no recognised qualification. You have just worked 2 years for unemployment benefit money. The government pay the companies for taking these people on as it reduces the official unemployment figures.

7) The company are now shaking the hand of the next young sucker with the promise of a  “job”.............

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE FROM THAT YEAR

Youth training scheme a failure and a disgrace

Monday 13 February 1995 - The Independent

Up to 60 per cent of young people who attend the Government's Youth Training Scheme have no qualification when they leave, according to a survey published today.

Half of all youth trainees do not find a job at the end of their training and 58 per cent leave early, said Kevin Barron, Labour's spokesman on training.

"One in every two young people have no qualification to show for the training. This isn't a youth training policy; it's a disgrace."

Yvonne and Jan who ran career choice tried their hardest to get me to go on this but I wasn’t having any of it. I did have an interview with a local accounts company but I deliberately didn't make the effort to avoid getting the placement.

40 pounds a week was nothing, to work for that until I was 20 was not an option. I now had to pay dad 20 a week living expenses and still worked for the milkman as well because I was desperate for the money. The two women just didn't have a clue or want to listen. When I gave them a rundown of my financial situation, they just assumed I would get support from home (absolutely no chance).

In the end they gave up, I finished the course and signed on for unemployment benefit, within 2 weeks I applied for a job at an electrical goods store called home power. 16 hours a week but 20 percent more money than career choice, I could also work extra mornings for the milkman now for a bit more. I didn’t do very well when it came to work over the next 18 months but I still made the right choice.

Career start.........no thanks!!!!