Finding a summer job

[chocolateee]

My 17 year old has just finished school and is 'looking' for a summer job. I use the term 'looking' loosely as so far he's done a bit of looking but not much else. He finished his GCSEs 2 weeks ago and so far has spent the last 14 days doing absolutely nothing and is driving me mad. He's never had a temp job before and he's a year older that his classmates as he had to repeat the year. he'll be 18 in November. he starts college in September but I think he needs to get up off the sofa and look for work and earn his keep. Trouble is , so far I've had to do all the ground work for him. I've tried various suggestions as to where to look , how to write a CV , how to fill in an application form etc but not a lot happens. I took the next step of drafting a CV for him, downloading some application forms for him etc. I don't want to do all of the grafting for him but he's absolutely clueless as to how to go about it. I k ow I should be stepping back and making him take the initiative but it just won't happen.
I suppose I've got find that balance between helping and interfering ! he gets a small monthly allowance at the moment but I feel like telling him that this will stop unless he pulls his finger out.
Must admit though, these application forms are daft . Helped him fill in one yesterday that was about 15 pages long and was more like an isometric test that a flipping summer job application !! took us the best part of an hour. Traipsing round shops with his CV hasn't worked either . It's usually a flat NO. I suppose , if nothing else, it will teach him a valuable life lesson.
Anyone got any tips ?

I could have written your post except for the allowance bit. Ds has had a Saturday job for a year so we don't give him an allowance any more.

Unfortunately even with experience he's not got a job. Mainly due to lack of effort I think. He's driving me mad. The only tip I have is to ask at the local golf club. They often hire for functions. Get him to go in with his cv and ask.

Looking forward to any words of wisdom myself.

I think you have to withdraw the allowance (or reduce it enough to make looking for work essential).

The CV thing does work sometimes but you have to be persistent and in the right place at the right time, keep handing them out. Also what about a day a week voluntary somewhere; often leads to some paid hours and is good experience anyway to pad out that CV.

You could divert the allowance money and pay for him to get a qualification like lifeguarding for example. ds1 did this, cost about £200 but has been well worthwhile and gave him part-time work throughout college plus the First Aid aspect of it is a lifeskill. ds2 did a football refereeing course and again it paid decent money for a few hours work and carried him through college.

All good tips - thank you.
Funnily enough we tried to book him onto a St John's First Aid Course yesterday but the next ones anywhere near us are not until September. He's not too handy with a ball ( dyspraxic ) so the sporty route won't go down well although we've got a golf club round the corner and so long as he doesn't have to go near a golf club or ball , their windows may remain intact !

He's saving for a ticket to go to Reading Festival - I was hoping that would be enough of an incentive. I may resort to teaching him how to iron and getting him to reduce my ironing pile for a fiver an hour ! Although he sometimes doesn't seem to have the sense he was born with ! He cooked up a stir fry with his girlfriend yesterday evening then brought the cast iron wok straight from the hob to the (wooden ) table and plonked it down. Funny how it left a large circular burn mark at one end of the table !

I have to give him points for initiative though for a) cooking in the first place and then b) for telling me he'd been able to get the burn mark out , although he'd just turned the table round and stuck the fruit bowl over the top of it !!