Anyone else worried about jobs

[Lacey2019]

Hello everyone,

Is anyone else worried about jobs? I have such anxiety for my friends and family who have lost jobs. Some have lost very high paid jobs in the city, which was something no one ever expected to happen. Big houses, mortgages, cars on finance. I want to help, but I don’t feel I can. I am lucky to be a teacher, but I need to also ensure I’m okay.

I have looked at moving to Dubai with a friend, as he’s always wanted to and we thought he’d get a job. He has no degree, but lots of great experience in retail fit outs in the UK. He can’t live with me I believe, but I’m also not sure he’d get work.

How is everyone else coping/getting on?. I do worry and think of everyone on here too. I’ve done some free open university course which I recommend for anyone.

I work in the nursing care industry in an office role and it’s certainly looking risky. We have hardly any new admissions the business is struggling although you would think it’s a secure area to work in.
A few people have already been made redundant so it’s like half expecting the letter at any point.

I am more scared of the economy than the virus now

@YewHedge

Yes OP but I am more worried about lives. The rates of infection are going up quickly, at the moment mainly in young people but it's only a matter of time until it gets to elderly and underlying health conditions and then the deaths will start going up again.

And if no one has jobs then it won't pay for the nhs to save lives !

StapleMaple it's not for this OP, I know; but the reality is that HE is now an industry, bound by market forces. The Blair government that wanted 50% of youngsters in uni is to blame.

Our current government both wants them to be businesses, but also bastions of intellectual rigour.

You can't have both.

Therefore many ex Polys, Institutes of Higher Education, Teacher Training Colleges, Nursing Schools- all now Unis.

Hence we have reached a position where you can get funded through 11 years of state education, then fail English and Maths GCSEs; but then undertake a couple of functional maths/English NVQs, with aggregate scores that are apparently equivalent to those failed GCSEs; alongside an access course upon completion of which, as if you'd passed a two year course with 3 A levels at 'C' or above-off to uni to become a nurse or HCP.

Hooray. But it is in everyone's interest to have that student 'pass' those functional courses. The delivering college, the Tech who is being funded to do the Access Course, then the uni who has vacancies on its course.

All £££. For the providers.

There is no disincentive to confess that someone just doesn't have the intellectual capacity or the skills. No one is measuring that. So it's pass, pass, pass.

Til you end up with firing 4 two digit numbers at your HCA, please write them down (as per your job in this instance), and add them up, but who cannot add together 15,34,23,58.with a pen, paper, and 5 minutes. Off to uni to become a HCP, come Sept, grasping her NVQs, and an 'access course' pass. Aaand she'll pass.

Re the maths, nor could I, but I was in the middle of performing a cardiac angiogram 😂

She just couldn't do it. Her phone battery was flat.... so another HCP quickly did it for me, in her head.

Be careful of 'second chances'. In our present climate, they sometimes mean 'bums on seats' shortcuts.

I know it’s not a popular view but I believe that we look back in five or so years time we will see that more lives were lost as a result of lockdown than as a result of coronavirus

We are as already in a recession and in 2022 it will hss as be become a depression. All of us are going to be impacted in some way - no one is going to escape it.

@Miljea people bizarrely tell me things they probably shouldn’t. 😁 admissions officer at uni told me they’re no longer allowed to read the statement and interview an unqualified mature student and say “yep, this one’s smart” and offer them a place - because who are you or I to decide whether someone is intelligent or not, or whether they just haven’t been presented the right test yet.

Admissions officer at FE college said they offer access courses rather than formal qualifications because they’re easier, but more importantly? They get a cheque from the government for every student signing up.

@Miljea

Somewaterytart what else, today, other than uni, did these A level students think they were heading for? A serious, genuine question!

Even in 1980 (me!), the 'A' level students were pretty much all heading for uni/poly. Otherwise it was teacher training/ nursing /HCP/banking/military officer training, and the like.

That was it.

Yes, exactly, they thought they were headed for a job, like HCA perhaps. Now, to your delight, but not theirs presumably, they will be competing for those jobs with 50 odd other people instead of 6.

It just feels so surreal, but it’s not a film it’s real life. It’s hard as if it was one person in a family or group, others could help and support but it’s really not. In my main group of friends I would say at least one of the partners in each couple had lost their job or was at major risk :(

Thanks for starting this thread OP. Yes, I am worried. I am one of those City people you mention in your first post - only very frugal (nothing on finance, you wouldn't be able to tell I earn so much from my lifestyle) and haven't lost my job. I am moving roles to something which I hope will work out- a bad time to leave but it was too good an opportunity to turn down.

Am therefore saving like mad. I cannot bring myself to spend on things - much as I know it will help the economy (am making an exception for books from local bookshops and our holidays this year will all be in the UK). Conscious of the paradox of thrift but still can't get over it. Even when I get my new paycheck, I will just be saving the excess.

I am very conscious I am luckier than many, but still feel uneasy.

I haven't been able to tell anyone apart from DH in real life (because I am very lucky) so thank you OP. Feels good to get it out.

And Brexit is the elephant in the room. People will look back at this period with amazement at how we could have been so stupid.

I'm extremely worried. DP and I are probably going to have to sell up and downsize a long way away from where we and family currently live. Both currently furloughed but not looking good in our sectors. I could get a job tomorrow in healthcare sector but frontline, which would be a major concern as we are both be unlikely to cope well if we got COVID. Luckily all our adult DC are in sectors which are currently at least booming so at least that's one less thing to worry about.

Terrified. I do all sorts of things to stay afloat, and none of them look all that promising at the moment. The pub is work at now seems unlikely to reopen; I'm worried that the wraparound care I do at my local school may not resume; the freelance proofreading and editing looks unlikely to be a big earner. I'm afraid it's not going to be as straightforward as simply 'getting out there' or 'applying myself more'. Absolutely shitting it.

@Miljea such a weird viewpoint. A nursing degree has the same modules and marking criteria regardless of whether the student did an access course or a levels, therefore those who you deem unsuitable still won't pass; that's why the criteria for getting your pin is highly regulated as to not allow standards to slip. You're assuming that everyone who goes on to do an access course does so because they couldn't pass a levels, not the case at all. Many people find their vocation later in life, following, for some, extensive experience in the care sector or somewhere where the transferable skills are very useful for nursing. A decade or even 2 prior, perhaps they left school without staying for sixth form, or maybe their GCSEs didn't go to plan, it isn't an indication of their intelligence or their potential. Also people do fail to recieve the distinctions they need to meet their offer for uni, so not everyone passes their access course to progress. Seems odd to be so bothered by them, it's a great pathway to open certain careers to people who don't have the finances or time to do a levels for 2 year.

staple- I would feel rather more confident if it wasn't entirely to the benefit of the 'uni' to pass those students. As they don't have to wear the consequences of passing people who really, really aren't good enough.

Exactly the same applies to the HCPC.

They're supposed to oversee professional standards. But somewhere along the line, a government (looking at YOU, Tories) desperately needed to increase the NHS workforce, as it was desperately dwindling.

So they told the HCPC to not scrutinise certain qualifications.

Which is now why I see, on a weekly basis Datix where someone has imaged totally the wrong body part on the wrong patient.

It's a bit of a Ponzi scheme.

I totally understand that people come to want to do HCP later in life.

But you're not telling me that functional Maths/English taken alongside an access course, with its alleged 'A' level Chemistry etc, are equivalent to a Maths and English GCSE, 5 or higher, plus 3 'A' levels, passed.

I’m so sorry to everyone having a hard time x

@31133004Taff

I wonder whether the government will be forced to reconsider how a significant proportion of the population potentially living on Universal Credit. The only way I can see people managing is by going into debt. Who can live on £110 per week?

for the past 10 years both the media and the general population have been telling those on benefits that they are given too much.

odd isn't it?

Ah but people didn't care then @beatrixpotterspencil, they are only bothered now it affects them.

and on MN, frugality is the new morality.
but only if you are a high earner

im self employed, havent been affected by covid, but I do think the participants in this particular forum are not a regular cross section of the population at large.
it is difficult to find real stats on this stuff on any forum, as there's always a general sadness to the members, somehow, if that makes sense.

sorry, a general 'sameness' to the participants - not sadness!!!!

@Thegentleman you do realise not everyone has been on benefits long term right? That redundancy, long term illness, leaving work to care for a family member as there's no state support happens too, right?

Many of my friends have lost their jobs and are really struggling. It really worries me.
I'm public sector and lucky in that my job is relatively safe

What an odd view The Gentleman. Of course the system is not set up for "long term" claimants only. It's a safety net for all. Or is supposed to be. Who knows when redundancy, illness, disability might happen to any of us?

I was on the verge of making my new career work, self employed (as is 90% of my profession) and finally in profit after paying out a lot of course fees. Work disappeared in Early March due to a local isolation on some of my regulars. No work has come back yet and I wasn’t entitled to government support.

Applying for jobs alongside trying to get SE work but very rarely get responses never mind an interview. Mainly care & cleaning jobs but I’m unable to do them due to disabilities.

Plus I’ve only limited childcare until my teens go to uni /kids back at school.
Dh is in a low paid job (heading for retirement) and is pretty safe as they’re very busy .