The Avanta Files » Stories from the Back to Work Programme

May 11, 2012

If you know Mystery Science Theater 3000, you might get that reference =)

So yeah, anyways, not much to say about today. My Job Coach had a booklet of vacancies on his desk, and after the pleasantry’s he asked me to have a look through them, all of them, with no exceptions had NO information about them job, just where it is, or what agency and the wage, nothing else. Apparently, you express an interest and they give you the information, also, they OWN them vacancies. There wasn’t anything there, but it does bring us to our title.

My Job Coach decided that he wanted me to apply to McDonald’s, yeah, that’s not going to happen, I’m not working with food out of fear of KILLING SOMEONE!! I can’t cook to save my life and the Catering course on my CV, I was forced onto by A4e ages ago, but that’s a whole different story.

After, I think I talked him out of that one, we had a look at the Job Centre Website for some jobs, there was a couple there I might express an interest in. He wanted me to apply for them there and then, but I can’t, for 2 reasons – 1) I don’t have webmail access, only POP3, 2) I asked them to destroy my CV, which they didn’t do, so I reaffirmed (think that’s the right word) my request for them to do it. I said I would look into the jobs, but the Job Coach wants me to CC the emails to him when I do apply – I have asked consent.me.uk on Twitter if they can ask me to do that, I will update this post with there answer if they have one.

Now, unfortunately, I did screw up with this appointment, as you will know, your advisor or whatever will take notes on the appointment, and you have a right to see them notes as they are being written, I didn’t see them, I wasn’t even offered to look at them. I will get a look at them next appointment, which happens to be 1st June 2012 at 1pm.

Being unemployed sucks, I need to sort stuff out, get myself self employed as a live streamer and video producer. Oh well, until next time.

Update from Consent.me.uk (Posts to me are marked @dancingbeaver, posts to them are marked @consentmeuk):
@dancingbeaver Ask them to post you a letter, stating giving your personal correspondence is a Mandatory Activity & consequence if u do not.
@dancingbeaver If you did it, there is no evidence it was Mandatory & if u complain they will say you consented to give your correspondence.
@consentmeuk I have to use email as main contact with them, I have never gotten a letter even though they have sent them (1/2)
@consentmeuk (2/2) I’ll send one off asap and request that info – Thanks for the help =)

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April 30, 2012

I intended this post to be just called “I Win”, I was planning it all out in my head during the walk home, I even tweeted about it. Then I got a phone call which this majority of this post will be about.

But, lets start at what this appointment was all about – Mandatory Job Search.
Not much happened, found 2 jobs, printed em out, sat around for 30-45mins, set off home, will look more in detail once I finish this post and have some grub. I was also pulled aside about a apprenticeship that came up as a designer for a carpet company, unfortunately, they where wanting A Levels, which I don’t have and some CAD experience, last time I touched CAD was 1999 when I played about with it. Good Job, but not something I could do.

Next up, follow up to getting my data wiped. I passed the letter on to my advisor, who passed it onto the manager, thinking that would be the end of it until my next appointment. Not everything goes as planned.

Now onto the phone call – I was about half way home when I got a phone call from my advisor, asking if I could go back to the centre, said ok if I could get my bus fair back to get home (my legs where killing me), the manager wanted to talk to me about the letter etc.

Some of this might be lost in translation, forgotten or misinterpreted. Its one of them things with my bad memory.
So, I get back to the Avanta office and the manager is in reception waiting for me, she takes me into a side room for some privacy and basically asked “Why?” – Fair question, so I explain my reasons, also turns out, that I haven’t signed a ‘consent to share’ of any shape, so the letters are put as ‘Under Review’ by both myself and the manager and put in my folder. My CV is being deleted, I just have to show any revisions to it, but the manager did say, that if they do send your CV to anyone, they wipe your address from it, but not your other contact details you have on there, again, we came to an agreement – If there is a good job for me, and they are sending CVs in bulk, I’ll send it on myself, either via Avanta (with contact details redacted) or direct to the employer myself (the full version).

The talk about the letter and stuff didn’t really take up much time, the manager really is a nice person and I don’t have a problem with the people who work there, its the system I have the problem with, but we started to talk about why I don’t have a job yet and how they can help, she explained it a lot better than how the Job Centre or any other course have explained it. It also turns out I may have the equivalent to a C at GCSE in Maths, English and IT, but no one bothered telling me, I’ll be taking my certificates with me for next appointment, if it turns out there not, I’ll try and get on something to get Maths and English up to scratch (i’ve been avoiding it for a long time, I know I’m useless at both)

That’s about it really, next appointment is 11.30am on the 11th May, but may be changed to this Friday at 9:30am (my choice).

Until Next Time.

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Back to Work, Course

April 25, 2012

Today didn’t start well to begin with, £4 underpayment on my JSA, it only got worse.

So, I was ‘dragged’ into Avanta today, for “Focused” Job Search aka sit in front of this Computer and look for jobs and write them down. Very focused, its something to get you into the office and keep an eye on ~~their money~~ you, thankfully, it only took me 30mins to get 6, which I could have done at home.

But, why am I in a bad mood? I decided to assert my rights, mainly the right below (thanks to consent.me.uk):

“There is no legal requirement for a Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) customer…to supply their provider [or DWP Jobcentre] with a CV…, an e-mail address or a telephone number. ”

Not that they listened to me, I asked for ALL my CVs to be deleted from there system, I was threaten with sanctions and being dragged into the centre twice a week for jobsearch, so, I’m going to send them a Read Only/Do Not Sent copy, until I get everything I need to get them to delete them permanently. I also asked for my information NOT to be shared, again, they said I signed the form letting them, which, unfortunately, is true, but I will be using the power of the Internet to get all this wiped.

On a side note to not having to supply and email address or telephone number and only having contact via letter, I have officially changed my contact to e-mail, mainly because I still don’t receive letters from them, and I got the first email with my next appointment for 11/5/12 at 11:30am AND another “Focused” Jobsearch appointment for 30/4/12 at 11am as I am writing this.

I’ll take all my research with me, they can’t ignore any of it with is being direct from DWP. I’m a fighter, I wont let them take the piss any more.

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April 19, 2012

I got a phone call this morning, from Avanta, reminding me, I have an appointment today at 3pm. That’s the first I heard about it. I made this known and that I’m busy today (right this second, while I’m writing this post, I am fixing my cousins laptop). Advisor asked if it was ok to phone at 1:30pm, it was.

So, 1pm rolls by and the phone rings with Avanta on the other end. It was mostly feedback from the mock interview, and the feedback was very good, except how I was dressed, but my advisor knew about that.

I have also had my name put down for “Focused Jobsearch” whatever the hell that is, apparently they phone places to get you an interview, will find out more on Wednesday morning, and will blog it, as usual.

That’s about it, apart from complaining about the very short notice with the appointment. They sent a letter the day after, but, of course, I have had problems with letters from them before and they know to phone me. Advisor admitted responsibility, so its all good, and because we did the appointment over the phone, it still counts as being there.

That’s it, cya next week with another post.

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March 20, 2012

Today’s appointment was… eventful, in a good way, although it started with a *facepalm*, you see, I was booked in for a Mock Interview with my advisor, and he changed his mind so I would have it with someone who is impartial. He lie, he lie! But he gave a very good reason and actually, it was better having someone who didn’t really know me doing the interview, because the feedback was better.

So, lets get into the meat of the appointment, the interview itself, It was good, much better than the one I had on the employability course, because it was tailored to an actual Admin roll, instead of general questions about Asda and the lass who was doing the mock interview was giving feedback after any question I was struggling with and it helped, managed to use some of that feedback in questions that followed.

All in all, it was a good appointment, highlighted some of the curve balls that might be thrown, and there was a few, questions that might not be asked in a normal interview, but helpful none the less.

Not got my next appointment yet, once the feedback form for this interview is done, my advisor should be phoning me to have a quick go through it and then book my next appointment (which will go in the site’s calendar).

Until the next post, Happy Job Hunting!

Update 28/3/12: Its been over a week since the last appointment and when I was told I would get my next appointment – It hasn’t happened. Hopefully it will be soon, so I can give you another post.

Update 03/04/12: Still nothing from Avanta regarding this appointment, no phone call, no letter, nothing, not even my next appointment. Think there going back to there old ways? Or did they look at this site and wonder how they should handle me from now on? Okey, I doubt its either of them, but they should have contacted me somehow by now.

Update 12/04/12: STILL nothing from Avanta, I wonder if they have forgotten about me…

Update 19/04/12: They phoned me at 11:30am telling me that my appointment is today at 3pm, short notice or what! Doing it over the phone at 1:30pm, and I will be complaining, and mentioning this blog as evidence.

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March 12, 2012

Somehow, I was an hour late for my appointment, my advisor had it down for 2:30, I had it down for 3:30 – Lucky for me, my advisor is canny cool and said to me “its not like you to miss an appointment” so he let it go. But before I got there, he phoned me, I was just about at there office when he did. Its all good.

Had a quick chat about the Employability course I was on, remade the appointment for next week at 1:30pm for a mock interview – Though my trousers don’t fit, I have some black combat trousers I can ware, only temporally.

That’s all really, not much to say when your late.

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March 9, 2012

So, I just got an email from Northumberland College, the provider of the Employability course I just finished, well, I say an email, I got 2.

First email was devoid of any info, except for there address, 2nd email contained my CV, my CV with very minor changes, but changes I noticed right away.

Change 1: The underline under my name, address and contact info is gone
Why? I have no idea.

Change 2: The separator between my phone number and email address is gone
Again, Why? That separator made it easer to see them.

I’m not going to bother replying, or use the CV they sent me.

That’s my rant for today, sorry

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March 6, 2012

That’s it, done, finished, no more!

That’s right folks, this is the last post in the Employability Saga and its been a fun ride, so lets get down to what happened today.

First up…. The Mock Interview, with a guy we had never met before, although he did come in like an assistant before we started them, so that was all good.

Like any real interview, you knock on the door and wait to be told to go in, you shake hands, introduce yourself and sit down, it all fell down from there, well, I say fell down, although the guy knew what we where interviewing for (in my case, Admin at ASDA), he still had to go through his script, because its part of the course.

I answered most of the questions well, except for Question 1, “What do you know about ASDA?” and Question 8, “Can you tell me when you have delivered good customer service skills?”, screwing up question 1, I knew I would do that, but question 8 threw me off, alot, due to the fact, I would be working back room, not dealing with customers at all. The guy helped me with that one, he knew it wasn’t relevant, so he basically said that people you work with can be classed as customers, if something like that comes up, say how you helped them.

It was hard, and the feedback showed that, the interviewer could see I was nervous and helped as much as he could, props to the guy, he gave us some really good feedback on what we did wrong, as well as what we did right.

After that and after lunch, we did a group feedback session on the interviews, they asked if then could tell the others what we did wrong and what we did right, none of us where bothered, it was one of them groups (a good one), finished off our interview workbooks and that was just about it. Last hour or so was filling out the finishing paper work, once that was filled out, we could go.

So, that was my 7 days on a Mandatory Employability Skills Course, I guess if you need help with these things, and you know you need help, then you will get something great out of it, more so if you have a tutor like ours who can have a laugh, but, if your like me, your not going to get much from it – My advice, if its Mandatory, just grin and bare it.

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March 5, 2012

WOOOO! 2nd last day of the course is over! Just one more to go!

Today, we did 2 things, one useful, one…. not so useful, and even the tutor agreed. So lets split this into 2 parts.

Morning – Learning about money
This is the pointless booklet we did, oh my was it pointless. It was basically a booklet on managing money, sort of like in the ‘Getting To Know You‘ post but with less listening and more writing. The majority of us had to blag some of the questions, myself included, more so with it being Weekly outgoings and not Monthly outgoings.
I’ll give you an example:

These are my REAL outgoings each month, with added weeklyness for the sake of the booklet:
£50/Month or £12.50/Week – Phone Bill
£8.99/Month or £2.25/Week – City of Heroes
£20/Month or £5/Week – Windows 7 Ultimate (Catalogue)
= £78.99/Month or £19.75/Week

Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for the booklet, it wanted 6, so 3 was not enough for the ‘Qualification’, so instead of having £40 per week to spend, the booklet makes it look like I have less than £10 per week. I’m ranting about this now, I shouldn’t.

So, yeah, basically, we where learning how to manage money, a basic life skill, something everyone knows and either does it well or badly. Not really something you can improve without willpower.

Afternoon – Interviews
So, in the afternoon, we started work on the Interview booklet, this is after we did some research on ASDA, why ASDA? Because they have jobs for everyone, even an administrator. I have to admit, any help with an interview is helpful, but mock interviews can be… well… off putting. Real Interviews are more off putting than a mock one, but that’s getting a little tangentey (is that even a word?).

We went through questions they might ask you and questions you should ask them, how you should present yourself, how to make a good first impression, you have heard all this before, its pointless repeating it.

Tomorrow, we have a mock interview, not with out tutors, its with someone none of us have met, I guess its to take us out of our comfort zone, but this guy will be conducting it like a real interview with ASDA, I say real, ASDA do group interviews and not one-to-one interviews.

Not looking forward to it, I get tongue tied pretty easily so all the preparation in the world won’t help. Roll on the final day!

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February 29, 2012