Employability Courses... what are they good for?

I've just completed my second two week long employability course (my first one was in October 2012) which is why this blog has been silent for a couple of weeks.

My main questions about Employability courses are

- Does the Job Centre publicise them enough?

- Does the Job Centre actively discourage people from attending?

- Do employers value the qualifications that you gain on these courses?

- Are they of equal value to everyone regardless of previous employment history and academic achievement?

- What are the benefits of employability courses? 

- Where can I find out more information about the courses that are available to me?

Both of the courses I've attended were run by South Gloucestershire and Stroud College and both were 9 days long (over 2 weeks). The first course "Suited, Booted and Recruited" is advertised by my local Job Centre, they sent my husband on it back in April 2012, and because of this, I knew about the course and signed up for it myself. My husband had his travel costs (bus fares) refunded by the Job Centre, but when I asked about getting mine back (nearly £40 over the two weeks) I was informed because I had referred myself onto the course that I was not entitled to any support.

We found out about the second course "Hired and Inspired" from the college, it was a course designed for people who had already attended the first course and were still unemployed. We were invited to attend the first run of this course. It is not yet advertised in my local Job Centre, not sure if it will be. This course was within walking distance, so no travel costs.

Our Job Centre were quite helpful about the courses, informing us that we didn't have to take time away from the course to sign on, so instead of a fortnightly sign on, we had 4 weeks between sign ons because of the course. All we had to do was bring in the confirmation letter before the course started so that they could excuse us from a sign on. 

Other people on the course were told by their Job Centres that either they had to sign on as normal, missing a few hours of the course, sign on later in day after the course had finished, sign on via telephone, not sign on but post their job search forms through the Job Centre door on their sign on day. Some people attending the same Job Centre with different advisers were told they had to do different things. There is no consistent message, it was the same situation with travel expenses, some people got them back, some didn't.

So to answer the first two questions

- Does the Job Centre publicise them enough?

I don't think so, most of the courses I know about I have found details of myself online or though word of mouth. The Job Centre has not told me about any employability courses.

 

- Does the Job Centre actively discourage people from attending?

Yes, I think they often do discourage people from attending, either by ensuring that you will fail the course by missing vital parts to go sign on, by giving false information, and by making it expensive and sometimes financially impossible for people to attend. Then if you are on the course, speaking to other people who have been treated differently by their Job Centre or adviser is just totally disheartening.

Now on to the big questions

- Do employers value the qualifications that you gain on these courses?

The qualifications I got during the two courses were all Entry level and very very basic, what I would call common sense stuff. I now know how to shake hands, that I need to be polite and turn up on time to work, that I need to dress appropriately, be helpful to customers, etc etc.  

I now to add to my degree have :

- CIEH    Emergency First Aid at Work

-  NCFE

Exploring Employability Skills (Entry Level and Level 1)      

Exploring and Demonstrating Business and Enterprise Skills (Entry Level)                                              

- NOCN Introduction to Undertaking an Enterprise Project (Entry Level)

- City and Guilds Customer Service (Entry Level)

Other than the Emergency First Aid at Work, which I know is useful and I have always ensured that I have a

current certificate, are any of the others actually useful for getting a job?

Are there any employers reading this that would consider these qualifications useful when choosing who to

employ?

- Are they of equal value to everyone regardless of previous employment history and academic achievement?

I can understand that either someone straight out of school, or someone who has been out of work for a long time may find these qualifications useful.

But, and it's a big BUT, I have many year of experience working in customer facing roles, and I have also got a science degree, to me, these courses were boring, and useless. It was like learning to suck eggs, I wasn't taught anything I didn't already know, the courses didn't challenge me, was there much point in me doing them? I doubt it.

- What are the benefits of employability courses?

For me the benefits of these courses were

1) Getting out of the house on a daily basic and having a normal working routine, oh how I've missed it.

2) Free lunch each day, saved loads on the food bills

3) A warm place to spend each day, my house is very cold because of the cost of heating it properly being totally beyond the scope for someone on JSA. I got to spend the majority of each day in a nice warm building, and I didn't have to heat my own home quite as much, so I might have saved a fiver over the fortnight :D

4) Interacting with other humans, unemployment is a lonely isolated place, I feel better for having spent time with people.

But I don't think that these benefits were the intended benefits of the employability courses.


- Where can I find out more information about the courses that are available to me?

If after reading this, you want to find out more about what's available in your area, have a look online, check with local colleges, speak to the Job Centre (you never know, one day they might be helpful :/ ).

Here are some links of things I've found:

Suited, Booted and Recruited (Bristol, S. Gloucestershire, and Gloucestershire)  (Hired and Inspired follows on from this course, so there is some information about it here as well)

Coursera provides free online courses taught by University lecturers, I'm really enjoying these, not really employability, but interesting, fun and free.

Vision to Learn provide some free courses for unemployed people.

If you have found anything else that might help other people, please post a comment with a link to it.