I'll try and be brief.
I'm a single parent claiming benefits but I desperately want to work, I went to college last year and got all the qualifications that I needed but nobody will employ me due to lack of experience.
Upon telling my advisor this he recommended starting me on a course where they would train me up and find me a work placement so I could gain experience. Sounded good.
So I went to talk to them, she made it sound great, "you would come here one day a week for an intensive job search where you would be given lots of help and support as well as being able to meet people like yourself etc...the rest of the week you would be out working in your chosen career".
Sounded great so I signed up.
It started 2 weeks ago on the monday, I got there at 10am and we were directed to a make-shift room at 10.20 and given piles of paperwork to go through, this took from 10.20 until 2pm which was the time we finish. I expected that on the first day though.
Went in on the tuesday and it was exactly the same exept nobody else turned up until 10:10am (not even the trainer!) so I was sat there on my own wondering if I'd come to the wrong place. When they did turn up she got out yet more paperwork and asked us to work through that which we did until 2pm again.
Wednesday - exactly the same except the paperwork was now finished so we were filling in "what I want to do" type stuff until 2pm.
Thursday - getting tired of the place already, got there and was handed the folders and told to work through them...they were finished 2 days ago! so we were sat there from 10am to 2pm doing sod all.
We were told at this point that most of us would have placements by the end of the following week so this boosted our spirits.
Monday was bank holiday. Tuesday we went in, the room we were using had a group of blokes in, I wandered around for 10 minutes before catching the trainer on her "cig break" who told me to go and sit in the little office on floor 4. I went and sat in there on my own for 10 minutes before two young girls came in...the following 10 minutes were spent hearing about the girls sex life , the trainer eventually came back and told us we could go and work on the 2nd floor if we wanted to?? So we went down, got sat in a computer room and left until 2pm. The most interesting thing I did all day was play freecell on one of the computers. I was so bored it was driving me nuts.
Wednesday was exactly the same.
Thursday we got there for 10am, the trainer turned up at 10:30am and told us to "go through our folders" and do what exactly??? So thursday was spent litrally just sat at a desk, looking out the window and talking to each other constantly clock watching.
I managed to get through the week as I'd been told I would start my work placement the following monday (today), it was exactly what I wanted to do (NHS) and I was really looking foward to it. Over the weekend I got a new blouse etc, got all ready this morning and got a phone call on the way there "can we postpone it until next week?" , the woman I was supposed to go and work for had a major bereavement in the family and would be taking the rest of the week off. Fair enough...I was upset but these things happen.
Anyway I got another phonecall straight afterwards, "just come back to a4e (the training place) for this week and you can start a fresh with your placement next week"....I honestly cannot stomach the thought of going back there for another week. It's bloody pointless and stupid just sat at a desk for 4 hours staring out of the window. If we did something worthwhile fair enough but to go there to sit doing absolutely nothing for 4 hours EVERYDAY??? I only just managed to get through the last two weeks, I can't do another one .
Thing is they're funny about attendance, I don't want to get thrown off the course but like I said, the thought of doing that for another week is like torture. Do I pull a sickie (but its obvious I'm faking considering the circumstances), tell them the truth about why I'm not going in this week and risk being "told off" or "switch off", go on autopilot and just grin and bear it for another week?
Am I being a brat or am I justified in not wanted to go back until I start my placement?