Jobcentre Plus Part 1 - Website Madness (2/2) By Martin Nickson

(1/2), (2/2). Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

I eventually get through to the Official Government Careers Advisor at the Job Centre. I informed her of my situation, my aspirations and my keening desire to impart my wisdom to the growing clamour of youth, who are apparently desperate to acquire a trade. So to the question 'What qualification do I need to become a trade school teacher?' her considered answer was 'Don't know'. And to the now redundant second question 'What funding might be available', her answer was defined by her first answer.

Going for broke, I asked where I may be able to seek additional advice. The careers advisor scored a full house of negatives with her answer to this question, and to the follow-up of 'Do you know who I might be able to speak to in order to ask where I might be able to enquire where I might get additional advice', and its scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel sister 'Is there any help you can give me at all?'.

Next day, despondently walking through the Hull drizzle(yes, the climate is a bit Nova Scotia), en route home after an emergency cat-food run , I popped into the local community centre to see if there was a crochet or needlework class I could join for something to do. A badly photocopied, faded yellow poster caught my eye 'Do you have Skills you want to pass on? Have you considered teaching Adult Education?'

Barely breathing I approached the empty looking tattered cardboard box labelled 'Aplications' (spelling reproduced accurately from source).

One solitary faded application, titled 'Application for City and Guilds Certificate in Delivering Learning', lifted slightly by the passing breeze, sat in the bottom of the box. I picked the form up, helped it home, and quickly filled it in, leaving only the cat food in the community centre, forgotten by me, but unlike all the websites, probably useful to someone. To be continued ...

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