These notes were handed out on Monday to jobseekers on a course called “Finding and Getting a Job” run by A4E, a private company that attempts to help people into work.
Unfortunately for the hopeful unemployed, there’s some pretty shoddy advice on this page alone.
First, it proposes you choose some dubious fonts.
Or “Times New Roman”, “Arial” and “Verdana” as Microsoft Word would know them.
It suggests you should be careful about posting your CV on a potential employer’s eyeballs.
We can’t think of many things that are “appealing on the eye”.
Write your name absolutely everywhere, in case of confused employers.
And – most importantly – always, always, always use spellcheck.
As they say, a lack of attention to detail can give the impression of laziness.
The claimant who received this document as part of their two-day course told BuzzFeed that they saw little value in the course.
The course materials are all pretty much of the same shoddy standard and even the A4e trainer kept apologising for the quality of them.
It is incredibly frustrating, especially since I could be searching and applying for jobs instead of being spoon-fed this drivel.
The Jobcentre adviser strongly suggested that I take a look at one of these courses. I was certainly under the impression that if I wasn’t amenable to this then my JSA could be subject to sanction, but it was never stated outright. That being said, once you actually agree to go on one of these courses then you are definitely obligated to attend.
A4E issued this statement to BuzzFeed:
The “Finding and Getting a Job” course is one of the many courses A4e runs to give extra help to jobseekers. These are voluntary courses, and many people have reported that the skills they’ve learned have helped them secure job interviews and employment. While we do have leaflets on CV writing, which are made available to customers, this isn’t one we recognize and is certainly not part of the official material we offer to people.