Dear Sir,
I’m 30 and desperately seeking work like the ever-increasing proportion of everyone I knew from school, college and university. Like most graduates, I’m in vast amounts of debt. I owe £18,000 (and rising) to the Student Loans Company.
Despite this, I don’t regret my degree course for a second (I have a 2:1 degree from York St. John University). No, my demons reside at the Jobcentre. Forced to move back in with my parents (who don’t have vast amounts of money), I rely on jobseeker’s allowance to get by.
The Jobcentre has done nothing but hinder me in my search. When I was asked what qualifications I had, and I told them about my degree, AAT accounting qualifications, NVQ levels 2 and 3, and my 14 GCSEs (all A-C), they responded with “Are you sure? Have you got certificates to prove that?” To be patronised and looked down on didn’t faze me, but what did was the suggestion by a personal adviser that I take my degree off my CV, saying it might be scaring employers.
I steadfastly refused, and later asked another staff member who said there was no way any adviser would suggest anyone remove a qualification.
Things degenerated when another adviser referred me to the “flexible new deal” programme. They made me attend a course to ‘help my job prospects’. This was a few rooms of rented-out office space with a projector, whiteboard and a few computers.
My assignment was to complete a large black folder worth of worksheets, with topics like “verbal and non-verbal communication” which was more or less sit up and smile, and interview techniques with innovative methods such as not swearing and wearing a shirt and tie. All for a level 1 NVQ, which according to direct.gov is worth the same as a GCSE grades D-G.
After this my adviser decided that work experience was all that mattered. This was despite the fact that I already have work experience. I have had a high salary working as a Mortgage Underwriter at Norwich Union, worked as a customer assistant at Waterstones and been an Accounts Administrator for the Educational Maintainance Allowance Scheme. Not to mention the many temporary roles I have had.
Why then did the “adviser” refer me to the mandatory work activity that is designed for young people who require “discipline” as they have “never had a job”. I have had jobs. I have discipline. I couldn’t have passed my degree without it.
I have successfully passed over 25 exams in my academic career, each one of them a good example of how I possess the skills of “arriving on time”, “carrying out specific tasks” and “working under supervision”, the aims of the mandatory work activity.
Why are graduates being placed on this scheme at all? I keep hearing claims that this scheme is voluntary. But I’ve got a form that uses the phrase “you must” three times, the phrase “you will” once and the word “mandatory” five times. I can’t seem to find the word “voluntary”.
I was asked the other day by a friend, “Isn’t this fair, though? I have to get up really early and slog away all day, why shouldn’t you?” What he meant was, “I am made to suffer hardship. I want to see you suffer too.” This is the start of bullying. The government is bullying the unemployed, and is inciting hate towards us. It’s not my fault that there are no jobs. It’s not my fault others have to work long hours for very little pay. It’s the government’s fault. You should look to it for answers, instead of demanding them from us, the scapegoats.
Ask why it signs off on its staff avoiding taxes, or on paying bankers huge salaries and bonuses of taxpayer’s money? I am not lazy or workshy. I send at least 20 job applications every week with no replies. No recognition of your existence. And of course, no jobs.
At university, I was so filled with ambition and hope for my future. I was going to get my own place, buy a car and settle down into independence. Now they say I’m only good enough to stack shelves or file things in alphabetical order. For no wage.
It’s a very bitter pill to swallow. I suspect, for my generation, there is no future. We were supposed to be the next set of great thinkers. What do you think we think about now? How to stay out of poverty. How to avoid being made a slave to recruitment agencies.
CG, Constant Temp.