Job applications and younger folk

steeljack · 10-09-2007, 23:09

bit of a wander from another thread posted by a young lad about getting a CV/resume in order for a job application , not being 'funny' here , but thinking back , I seem to remember being taught how to write job application letters, in English class in my last year at school , in those days it was after the 4th year (15 yrs old) you left school (unless you were a 'bright young thing') , the school also had a male and female teacher assigned to help finding the leavers a jobs........tours of Bulloughs , Lucas, Northrop etc. guess those days are long gone. Do the schools do anything these days to help find 'leavers' jobs ? or just pass them along as someone elses job.

WillowTheWhisp · 10-09-2007, 23:20

Don't recall anything like that when I was at school. I think it was automatically assumed we would all go to University.

steeljack · 10-09-2007, 23:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

Don't recall anything like that when I was at school. I think it was automatically assumed we would all go to University.

surely wishfull thing on someones part

cashman · 11-09-2007, 00:15

my last year at school there was no teachers like that at the tech, some complete knob from up hollins lane came in think he was called " Youth Employment Officer" was as much use as a fart in a space suit. mind i think you were looked down upon if you left at 15, i had no choice - needed the beer money.

dont really know what happens these days.

steeljack · 11-09-2007, 00:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by cashman

, some complete knob from up hollins lane came in think he was called " Youth Employment Officer"

at 15 everyone apart from your mates is a knob ..........

cashman · 11-09-2007, 00:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by steeljack

at 15 everyone apart from your mates is a knob ..........

true steeljack but i'm nearly 60 now n i still think he was a knob.

WillowTheWhisp · 11-09-2007, 07:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by steeljack

surely wishfull thing on someones part

That someone was Mabel B. Horne.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cashman

my last year at school there was no teachers like that at the tech, some complete knob from up hollins lane came in think he was called " Youth Employment Officer" was as much use as a fart in a space suit. mind i think you were looked down upon if you left at 15, i had no choice - needed the beer money.

dont really know what happens these days.

I seem to remember there was somewhere in town you could go to see a YEO. Maybe it was the labour exchange? I didn't see one. I did make an appointment but by the time I heard from them I'd already got several interviews lined up following letters I'd written applying for jobs. I must have been doing something right even off my own bat.

mani · 11-09-2007, 16:24

not quite attatched to this thread

but i hate job application forms which are 20 pages long - why?!

all the ones with the long answers etc

its like u see an application for a shop assistant and its got questions as if ur entering Mi5!

West Ender · 11-09-2007, 21:08

When I left school, back when the world was all in black and white - even ITV, I went into the Civil Service. My application was a letter to Civil Service recruitment, which was in Basingstoke, asking how I should go about it. Back came a great sheaf of documents asking about my qualifications etc. (O levels) and an application form to take the Civil Service Open Clerical Exam. I sent the form back and sat the exam, which I passed, then this was followed by a rigorous interview (5 middle aged men sitting on a podium) and a full medical examination. I was then assigned to the Inland Revenue, a department I had expressed no interest in what so ever (though I came to enjoy it and the pay was higher than the rest of the CS - it's not now!), in a town 15 miles from my home.

In recent years I have sat in on interviews for people being recruited into HMRC - it's all done locally now. I have seen applications where it was a surprise that the candidates managed to spell their own name correctly and one where a lad said his hobby was "Going round town with my mates". I don't know if school leavers are still taught how to write a job application but, if they are, some of the teachers concerned should be sacked.

Lilly · 11-09-2007, 21:12

We were taught how to write a CV and covering letter at school. We also had some bod from the careers office come and speak to us on a one-to-one basis to ask us where we wanted to go from school. I left school in 1994. I don't know if they still do this.

whittle1985 · 11-09-2007, 21:40

All schools now have a career person or someone assigned as the careers officer, most schools usually have a careers lesson, it is definitley taught somewhere or the oppurtunity is there to go and see somebody, even if not in school, places like connexions are there for these sorts of things where people can just drop in and ask for help and advice. If not with the wide use of the internet now it wouldnt take long to find an example CV even word has templates, they may not be what your looking for but its a start, how do people expect so much from schools? They now have to incorporate sex education, drugs education, Citizenship, Careers on top of the curriculum and normal lessons. This attitude of 'no - one taught me that' really annoys me, people should use some initiative sometimes!

BERNADETTE · 11-09-2007, 21:43

Which is just what the young lad who prompted this thread did, he wasn't clued up on the way to go about it and asked for advice off the people on the site who pointed him in the right direction.

Lilly · 11-09-2007, 21:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by whittle1985

All schools now have a career person or someone assigned as the careers officer, most schools usually have a careers lesson, it is definitley taught somewhere or the oppurtunity is there to go and see somebody, even if not in school, places like connexions are there for these sorts of things where people can just drop in and ask for help and advice. If not with the wide use of the internet now it wouldnt take long to find an example CV even word has templates, they may not be what your looking for but its a start, how do people expect so much from schools? They now have to incorporate sex education, drugs education, Citizenship, Careers on top of the curriculum and normal lessons. This attitude of 'no - one taught me that' really annoys me, people should use some initiative sometimes!

I agree that some people do expect the schools to teach their children everything, including some things that are really a parents job to teach, ie manners and good behaviour but I do believe that what we are discussing here, careers guidance and preparing a cv is something which definitely needs to be covered in school. A school's major aim is to educate and prepare children for life....and careers advice and constructing a cv is a big factor in that. These things should certainly be covered in schools.

Speedy · 11-09-2007, 23:10

We never had any sort of careers advice at all except for one visit from the conexions people. But personally conexions never impressed me, all the ever suggest to me is that i go to college (despite me explaining that £30 is not enough to pay for my college expenses and my 6month old son). I have had better careers advice on here in the last few weeks than i ever got at school. And thanks to the advice on writing a cv i am now in part time work and have had several people reading my cv in front of me and saying it was very impressive.

garinda · 11-09-2007, 23:16

Crusty old fossil-
'What do you want to do?'

Me-
'Become even more fabulous.'

Didn't go down to well.