HELP! Jobless and no one is taking me in!

[Tulvander]

I need sound advice please. If you're just going to mock and point my shortcomings, I'd like to politely ask you to leave.

My previous job ended in December as that was their last season. I've been searching for jobs since October and I haven't been successful in landing a placement. I live in an area that is highly regarded for its tourism industry and I have been working in this sector for over 8 years so I have experience. I have a 2.5. year old son who goes to nursery 3 days a week (M, Thur, Fri) and Dad looks after him on Tuesdays when he is off work. My husband is a chef who is paid quite well but apart from Tuesdays, he doesn't get set days off and he ALWAYS works on weekends. All the applications I have sent were either declined or taken into consideration because of the fact that I can't work weekends. I've gone to interviews and when they asked if I can work weekends, I had to reluctantly tell them that I couldn't. I have no one to look after my son on weekends and Im not willing to pay for a nanny to come look after him whilst I go to work because I won't be breaking even. I have tried to convince my husband to ask his manager if he can either have Saturdays or Sundays off as set weekend but it came back with a firm no.

I can't take my son out of nursery but I can't be going without a job. We've been using tax free childcare to help pay the nursery bills but since I've applied for Universal Credit, I won't be able to do that anymore. I have a feeling that our first month's pay will amount to £0.00 as we had the money to pay for rent and nursery fees this month but come the end of the month, we will only be relying on my husband's wage to pay for everything. Ive been checking the job site everyday but nobody has been getting back to me. Most of the jobs I've applied for seem to have a starting date between end of Feb-mid March which is far too long to wait. I have three interviews next week (Spa Receptionist, Housekeeping Duty Manager, Nursery Practitioner, Part-time Housekeeper) .I even have an interview for a Business Admin Apprentice at our local college. The pay sucks but its something that can lead to a Mon-Fri job.

This all sucks. Any ideas on how else I can get a job that can work around my childcare commitments? 😣

thank you

and i agree - it wasn’t clear

absolute opposite situation to my local primary where’s there something like 30 applicants for every TA role…. many from parents

I work in a secondary school and it isn't as easy as just walking into a job as a TA at all. It is hard to recruit for though, so if you do have a genuine interest in it it is worth looking into. But I don't agree you can just casually stroll into a TA role. It isn't well paid either. Actually, school admin roles are better paid tbh.

@Tulvander you mentioned that you’re doing a level 2 Principles of Business Admin course - is it a good course? I’m wondering whether to do this myself but there’s not much in the way of reviews for these free courses.

I work supporting residents in our housing association properties, with employment and training, so some ideas / suggestions:

• Does your council / housing association have employment support? If they do, it wil be free and they may also have grants to fund some training (this depends on the HA though).
• Check out OpenLearn, www.open.edu/openlearn/ the free courses are from The Open University.
• Is it worth training to be a Child Minder? Ring your local authority, as they often have training programmes for this area of activity, as there is a national shortage and it pays well!
• Via the Job Centre, you will be able to access the National Careers Service, who should be able to help with advice and guidance, how to produce a CV.
• www.jobskilla.co.uk have an offering of courses, some with vouchers / some with free tablets provided, to help you upskill.
• www.coursera.org have a very good offering of free courses, provided by leading universities.
• Benefit Calculator https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk
• Any apprenticeship via your local NHS trust? They often have roles, just not great at advertising them.

I hope some of the above is useful.

Join the bank at your local hospital and do HCA work or Housekeeper then you can pick your shifts/availability.

@Turkeyhen The course runs for approximately 3 months but depending on how dedicated you are, you can complete this in less than a month. The course contains 7 units, with each unit averaging about 5 sections. At the end of every unit, you need to complete an assessment and it normally has about 15 questions. I used SkillsNetwork and Im currently under the wing of West Nottingham College however I have yet to hear back from a tutor. I expect that I will get a call from the soon. It's very easy to navigate around once you've registered and the calendar that shows you each unit's deadline gives you the option to contact or ask a question. I have had to move my deadline for Unit 2 two more days because I have been struggling with job interviews and they have been very supportive. At the moment, I find the course very helpful despite the fact that Im not really that well versed in Business Administration. The only thing is that if you back out without completing the course, you have to pay a 100.00 fine.

@Tulvander thank you for taking the time to share that info 💐

@YYURYYUCICYYUR4ME Thank you so much for the links!