Unemployed not being helped by A4E

I just been watching a TV program called Benefit Busters. Which seems just as much and advertisement for the organization which seeks to put people in works as for the plight of the unemployed. This weeks episode was people who had been out of work for some time, one man had not worked for the last 13 years. He then went on to get a job, but after only a couple of weeks was served his notice letter. I felt sorry for him because he seemed a nice enough bloke. However, what was disgusting was the help this supposed employment helping company gave their clients. It verged on the absolutely ridiculous, these unemployed people would be in a class and their task might be to build a bridge out of paper and sellotape, or a model from scraps. There was no structured process by which they set out a time table of constructive events which would help people in to real work. They offered them temporary jobs through contacts they had with employers, they gave them the Yellow pages and also let them write letters to prospective employers, oh yes lets not forget access to the Internet. To which most people just browsed and did their own thing. What they should of done they didn't.

They could of improved the prospect of unemployed people if they used a little bit of initiative and gave those unemployed the skills they would need. Simple role play exercises, for instance on interviewing, or maybe even putting the unemployed in a different frame of mind and asked them all to imagine they were employers, then to draw up a list of things they wanted as an employer from a new recruit. There was no injection of confidence, no inside help, no use of their time or facilities, it was abysmal. So now if anyone mentions to me the acronym A4E, I will just feel sorry for them. And unfortunately realise how they had been baby sited for a few weeks, not helped and not given any skills to help them in work.

An even more annoying point was when the program stated this organization had now been given a 700 million pounds contract with the government over the next 5 years. How the founder must be rubbing her hands together and smiling with glee.