Quote:
Originally Posted by richard1960
Why do they need to have JSA work placements to evaluate candidates? they could take people on at the going rate for say a three months contract if the candidate was any good keep them on after that no problems.
Why they need taxpayer funded applicants is beyond me.
I shop with tesco and have done for years taking part in these schemes damages their reputation no end at least sainsburys and other companies had the sense to see that.
---------- Post added at 11:34 ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 ----------
IDS comes out fighting i do not agree with the scheme but he does have a point about jobs snobs though.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...-job-snob.html
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They don't - they (and others) only took part in this scheme to support it, because, as I stated earlier in this thread, there is still a lot of admin and support work involved even when someone is on a work placement (if people come to our place on a two week placement, they still have to have an induction, basic H&S training, and on the job training and supervision (which leads to the people doing this being less productive)). However, if at the end of the work placement, there are vacancies, it would be silly not to hire someone whom you had already trained and had shown the capability to do the job).
My son and daughter have stacked shelves in the evenings as summer jobs, and it takes a couple of weeks before any shelf stackers are felt capable of being allowed to do it unsupervised (as doing it wrong really peeves the customers if the stuff isn't in the right place the right way).
Trust me, work placements are not "free labour", not if you have to train and manage them.
There's an opinion piece in today's Times that puts it well, imho
Times (behind a paywall)
Quote:
It all started when the employment minister Chris Grayling had a letter from a distraught constituent who said that her daughter was thrilled finally to find a month’s unpaid work placement at a local company until she discovered that she would lose her benefits. This led to the bizarrely named Sector-Based Work Academies programme, born to allow those on benefits to try unpaid work for 30 hours a week.
Initially big companies had to be cajoled into the scheme. Taking on young people for a month or two is expensive — they need uniforms, training and nurturing; they aren’t a substitute for paid staff. Ministers were thrilled to have attracted companies such as Boots, Argos, the Arcadia group, Primark and McDonald’s.
The Department of Work and Pensions decided that a period of four to eight weeks would give young people enough time to try out the job without companies starting to take them for granted. “We weren’t manacling these young people and forcing them through supermarket doors to stack beans all night,” Mr Grayling points out. “They could leave after three days if they hated it.”
Instead it has been a huge success and very oversubscribed. Nearly 40,000 people have been through the scheme. Almost half of those who do placements have since come off benefits, many finding jobs with their sponsors. Tesco has taken on nearly a third of those who have done placements there......
...But, just as importantly, these volunteers are learning skills that shouldn’t be derided. Andy Clarke, the chief executive of Asda, started as a supermarket stacker at Fine Fare. Stuart Rose, the former boss of M&S, began his working life folding men’s jumpers. Terry Leahy, the former CEO of Tesco, washed supermarket floors as a 16-year-old. None of them saw their work as menial but as a stepping stone.
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