Unemployed - What Should I Do?
- Thread starter Adasta
- Start date
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Yellow Fang
Legendary Member
- Location
- Reading
Is there some transition town movement near you that you could join? You could try and get your head around the ISO14001, the environmental standard. Some companies like to be ISO 14001 compliant. It fits in with their Corporate Social Responsibility statements. The Carbon Reduction Commitment is the new thing companies are going to have to comply with. You could try and become expert at insulation. It's actually more interesting than you'd think.
I've just done some brief reading up on this. It's actually really interesting and something I would like to pursue (if possible). Do you think it might be worth writing to/calling some local companies to learn how they are working towards being ISO 14001 compliant?
mr_cellophane
Legendary Member
- Location
- Essex
Good luck. I was made redundant 16 months ago. At the start it was "sorry out of the 200+ applicants someone was better than you" now it is "sorry you have been out of work for too long" Still I have 6 weeks part time delivering Census forms to residential homes which is quite interesting and the hope of a couple more weeks gathering feedback in May.
Only applied for 1538 jobs so far, so may be I just haven't found the right one yet
Only applied for 1538 jobs so far, so may be I just haven't found the right one yet
Yellow Fang
Legendary Member
- Location
- Reading
Possibly, on one hand you may be competing with people with environmental science degrees or similar. OTOH, ISO14001 may be something that more companies will become willing to invest in. It's a voluntary standard, so when the economic climate gets tough, and companies look to save costs, guess who gets the bullet. In my last job, my company was ISO 9001 compliant, which meant that they had to prove their quality procedures were up to scratch. This was a tedious pain in the arse, but necessary because the customers expected it. If ISO14001 became similarly widespread, I expect many companies would be glad to have someone who is actually interested in taking care of it.
Likewise, the Carbon Reduction Commitment is giving companies headaches. It's a new scheme and they're supposed to have the first bit done by July, I think. The majority of Britain's biggest companies are required to be part of it. They will be fined according to how far down the league they appear. Originally, the best companies were going to be awarded money confiscated from the worst, but the new government saw an opportunity for a new tax. The companies' positions will be publicly listed in a league, and I doubt many companies will be happy about appearing last.
There are some organisations, e.g. councils, universities, big corporations, that employ energy officers. Their job seems largely to look at energy bills and to persuade the various departments to use less.
There seems to be an increasing amount of energy efficiency regulation being introduced. In construction, there is the dreaded Standard Assessment Procedure. You can get caught out though. The HIPS scheme, which house sellers had to comply with, seemed pretty useless, but I don't suppose those people who were trained to perform those HIPS surveys were too happy when the scheme was cancelled.
Writing to some local companies can't hurt. Mark and Spencers springs to mind. They're doing lots to bring down their energy use. I think they're using some consultancy though. They're quite proud of what they're doing so presumably would be happy to give you some information or tips, even if they don't have a job.
cookiemonster
Legendary Member
- Location
- Hong Kong
Just an update:
I had two interviews via an agency for admin roles.
I got neither. Why? Because I'm over-qualified.
I'm having the same problem.
This has got to be the only country where being educated works against you. Any other country that has had major recessions (Finland 1991, Far East/SE Asia 1997) all spent billions on educating themselves out of a recession, which worked. All you need to do is look at where the S.Korean/Finnish education systems are now, amongst the best in the world.
Not here. Being educated is used as a stick to beat you with and we chop billions from education leaving us unable to compete when the recession is over.
I've been refused jobs because no-one believes that any human being is able to cycle 10 miles
I despair of the UK
. Thankfully I will be out of here in about 18 months or so.
accountantpete
OAP
If anyone has been out of work for 6+months then there is a self-employment grant if you want to go down that route - £50 per week for 16 weeks.
Trouble is that it is being stopped at the end of the financial year - 5th April - so get your claim in quick.
Trouble is that it is being stopped at the end of the financial year - 5th April - so get your claim in quick.
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
This is one thing which annoys me... Why must one be out of work for 6months in order to benefit from a various initiatives or courses which are available for job seekers?
Last time I was out of work it would have been perfect if I could go straight on a course or some type or another which would enhance my CV. 'They' want to get poeple back into work asap, surely it makes sense to enable job seekers to get on a training course which may make their term of unemployment shorter?
eg. I'd spent years doing internet marketing, web design and copywriting... company goes bust and I'm on the dole. Ideally a short course learning the basics of ASP, PHP or say design for print would have at least put me in a position to apply for jobs looking for 'some knowledge' of ASP, PHP or whatever in addition to my existing skill set.
It would also make answering the "so what have you been doing since your last employment" question a whole lot better.
Hmmm... I wouldn't use the word "surely" there as the most sense for short term re-employment would be to expect people to get jobs in the line of business that they already know. Any training course will take time and will distract people from the hardest job I've ever had to do, which is getting another job.
The other point is that, IIRC, contribution-based job seeker's allowance only lasts for 6 months, so this grant only kicks in when you can no longer claim the dole.
That said, of course, I understand the thinking behind your idea that such grants should be available to those who want to re-train before 6 months is up.
I said similar when I was out of work late last year, only my thinking was about the futility of trying to do some good for society when out of work - I asked in my local JC+ about helping charities, becoming a PCSO or doing "social" work, as well as re-training. I was told pretty bluntly that Job Seeker's Allowance was for people who were actively seeking jobs, not for people who were just unemployed, and any time spent not available for work would be taken from my benefit.
As my mortgage policy relied on my benefit claim, I was out of options and had to sit at homeplaying Warcraft applying for jobs all day. 
I said similar when I was out of work late last year, only my thinking was about the futility of trying to do some good for society when out of work - I asked in my local JC+ about helping charities, becoming a PCSO or doing "social" work, as well as re-training. I was told pretty bluntly that Job Seeker's Allowance was for people who were actively seeking jobs, not for people who were just unemployed, and any time spent not available for work would be taken from my benefit.
As my mortgage policy relied on my benefit claim, I was out of options and had to sit at home
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
I'm thinking more 1 or 2 week courses which aren't learning entire new skills, but additional skills related to what you're already qualified for or experienced in.
But I see your frustration... the catch 22 of 'actively seeking work' and therefore you cant do a course just incase you get offered a job which starts in two minutes time.
But I see your frustration... the catch 22 of 'actively seeking work' and therefore you cant do a course just incase you get offered a job which starts in two minutes time.
Just ditch the course if a job crops up!
Maz
Guru
Adasta, I know you said you didn't have teaching in mind, but why not consider this?
I did a CELTA TEFL course a year or so ago and really enjoyed it. I work in Engineering but was 'testing the waters' with doing some TEFL teaching as a possibly career change.
After my course, I went on to do p/t teaching at uni and summer school and really enjoyed the buzz. Only downside for me was being the sole-earner in the household and not getting paid enough to support wife, 3 kids, mortgage, 2 cars, etc!
There do seem to be a lot of TEFL opportunities around at home and overseas if you fancy it.
Good luck and I wish you well.
