A Rant About Jobs
Okay, so warning to all, this is a bit of a rant, but I believe that this may interest you.
Jobs. How is it there are so many opportunities out there for people to get jobs who are Not In Education, Employment Or Training (NEET), or have just left secondary school or sixth form?
It's like, you hear on the news about opportunities for 16-19 year-olds, and the same on here with the BRC (British Red Cross) also having opportunities for young people aged 17-19.
I don't quite understand how it can be that these young poeple can have so many opportunities. Take me, for example, im 22 on the 4 December, and in my whole life I have only ever had two paid jobs.
The first I was, in my opinion, unfairly dismissed (I arrived late because of the snow in March 2009) and the second I got made redundant due to cutbacks in the budget. Yet I have done over 7000 hours of volunteering, so where is my job to show for it? Who is willing to pay me a decent wage that i can live on? Well? Anyone?
Didn't think so. But moving on, recently I have had to fight the careers' centre to get the benefits I'm on back, because they were cancelled for a mediocre reason, and then I had to go in for a "careers-based interview." Basically it takes two minutes, they sit you down and ask, "well, what sort of job do you want to do?" and I'm thinking, "Well if I'm here then the job I want I can't have, so tell me what jobs there are I can do!"
But still I just said that I wanted to go into training, but I had no formal qualification and needed one, and can they pay for it. Well, ten weeks later and success, they are paying for a course for me in the hope that it might get me a job in the future.
But that's no help for the now. And another thing, I'm a young carer, I look after my father who is disabled, which is okay, and he's okay with it, but I'm annoyed because I can get a job while recieving carers' allowance, but it can't pay more that £100 per week. Now that's less than 12 hours worth of work, but this is where it gets all crazy in my opinion.
If you claim carers' allowance and income support you can only work and get a wage of about £20 per week before they take the income support from you, so if you're in a position where you are helping to pay the general household bills (gas, electric, water, TV license, phone etc) then you don't have much left for travelling around to go to jobs, paid or voluntary.
So even if you can somehow get a job that pays within the boundaries, you are kind of screwed, as you can't get there due to the fact that the buses are extortionate, taxis are worse, and if you drive you've got to pay out more on road tax, MOTs, insurance, fuel, and repair and maintenance on the vehicle. Yet the government wants people to get jobs and get out of the house more. Ha ha, that's funny, how can they do that when they can't afford it?
I currently volunteer for the Army Cadets, but I haven't been able to go for a couple of weeks due to not having the transport and not being able to afford the bus fare. I also volunteer with the youth service, well I guess I'm lucky with them, they are at least providing transport for me to get to where I need to be with them.
But other than this I have volunteered for Save The Children, and I must admit they are a wonderful bunch, but their budget is also stretched so thin that while I was with them for a week I couldn't claim my travel expenses or get paid. But no biggy, I was there because I had nothing else to do.
And now we come on to a juicy part...
If I want to work in the sector I want to I would be happy with a 'but', and that but is that I would have to pay through the nose in taxes, as well as putting funds into my pension plan (yes boys and girls, it's good to start it sooner rather than later) as well as having to pay towards the rent at home (it's a council house and paid by housing benefits) and pay more towards the water bill, council tax, and many other things that the taxman would be glad to take from my well earned money.
So all in all, yes we are better off on benifits but that's no life to live. If we can work we should be given the opportunities to gain full-time employment in our chosen line of work. For me that's training and learning. I love sharing my knowledge on the subjects that I am passionate about such as the MDGs (Millenium Development Goals) and participation, and yet do you think i have that opportunity? Well I didn't, and soon I will, but still you tell me where there is an employer that is screaming out for a trained trainer. You tell me of a job that doesn't have nearly 30 candidates to one position.
This year Primark opened in Cwmbran, and yes I applied for one of the jobs (I needed the money), but the thing I don't get is that there were over 3000 people who applied for just 200 jobs. You tell me, how is it possible that there are over 3000 unemployed people within Torfaen? How is it possible that there are no jobs out there anymore?
Well I'll tell you. It's the big corporate firms like Ford, GE, and other major firms that have exported their factories and offices overseas to India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the Far East, and yet we are here without hope, and without jobs, and some of us without homes due to the fact that we have no jobs, and there isn't any out there that we are qualified to do, and even if we are, there are another 30-40 people chomping at the bit for their chance to have the job that's on offer.
What do I think we need to do to cure this problem?
Bring back the major firms, and give the jobs to the British citizen who has worked hard all their life to try and get jobs. Give jobs to the people who have the experience, not just those with a shiny piece of paper that says pass. It's like, I have five years experience of training, I have trained some of the officials that work with the Welsh Government. I have taught them how to participate young people and why they should include young people in their decision making. I have worked harder than most, and i have nothing.
Why, you ask? Because it costs too much to get the qualification.
What we also need to do is make these qualifications harder to achieve so that we don't have 30 people applying for one job. We would only have 10-15 people instead. Also, create more jobs, not just silly little six month placements like the Future Jobs Fund (that was a joke, I couldn't apply for it because I hadn't claimed the right benefit for long enough (because I didn't want to be another person claiming the dole)).
If you're going to give people the opportunity, you should give them the opportunity to have a career for atleast a year or two, give them an incentive to actually work. With me the only incentive I need is that it will pay the bills and I will have enough left over to live on and to save for a well-earned holiday.
So, bring back mass industry, stop this revolving open door policy on imigration, and provide British citizens with British jobs, and support them throughout their career as well. If they are unable to get to work due to lack of transport, provide them with free transport. If they volunteer, provide them with a free bus pass, and pay for their other out of pocket expenses.
If the person in question is less able (I won't say disabled because not everyone likes the term) but still want to work, provide them with a suitable job that they want to do. If they are happy to sit behind a desk, carry on. If they want to and are qualified to work in a play centre, let them. For one, it will show everyone that they are not just sponging off the nation. They arent INVALIDS (*spits out word - it's a disguisting word but was necessary*).
Let's show the rest of the people that they can do the same as everyone else. But don't force them into it, let them do it as they wish to. If they want to stay at home with their families and help out at home, let 'em.
Well, enough with my rantings. If anyone else feels the same or has any ideas about what we young people can do to improve our chances of gaining full-time employment, let me know and comment below.
Thank you for reading.
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IMAGE: krissen
4 Comments – Post a comment
769
Commented 5 months ago - 2nd December 2011 - 09:49am
great article - totally agree
eddie secretary
Commented 5 months ago - 5th December 2011 - 15:35pm
cheers #769 feel free to post up your own experiences for us to all read and see if we are going through the same as you, as i say Unity comes with numbers
Scattered
Commented 5 months ago - 5th December 2011 - 16:32pm
Sorry to hear this eddie - such a tough time for finding work. You sound like you have your head screwed on so something should hopefully come through for you. keep us posted
eddie secretary
Commented 5 months ago - 6th December 2011 - 00:04am
yes #Scattered my head is screwed on lol, i just think its rediculous that there is so many jobs for those who have been claiming a certain benefit for so many months, and for those of a certain age, and yet the ones that have volunteered for 90% of their free time there is nothing, it gets to the point where i wonder "is the government just screwing me to help someone else to tick a metaphorical box?"
well i cant say, all i can ask is "MR PrimeMinister, What are you doing to support those in desperate need of full time paid employment?"
"no didnt think you could come up with an answer"