Does anyone here have experence with the restart scheme?

I've been on several restart schemes in the past, they change all the time.

They are run by private companies and you have to attend appointments with them in addition to job centre appointments. 

They are run to make a profit so they try to keep their own costs down by hiring cheap offices in cheap buildings and my experience was that despite them promising to refund my travel expenses to their appointments, they often found an excuse not to pay.

They rewrite your cv and help you with advice on what jobs to look for. Main purpose is to get people off benefits by any means necessary. 

They are kind of stuffed if they are hoping to rewrite my cv to get me a zero hours contract style burger fliping job. My last 3 jobs were all very technical and profesional. No way to 'sell' them as something that would look atractive to someone looking for a shelf stacker. Plus they have the PhD on my cv to consider. I'm reminded of terry pratchet who wrote “Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on.”

Only in my case they can't even push me towards teaching because of the lack of a teaching qualification.

I was in a similar situation with them.  I have a masters in Statistics. At my first appointment  they asked me what kind of job I was looking for, I said statistical research, statistician etc.   They said they had nothing like that. Would I be interested in McDonald's or Primark?

There is also no privacy in these places or respect, I could hear other people's conversations.   Another feeble and ill man in his 60s was also asked what kind of work he was looking for, he said, "I'm diabetic" the advisor shouted at him, "ARE YOU ON MEDICATION? WELL TAKE YOUR.  B L O O D Y  MEDICATION AND YOU'LL BE FINE."

It is a catch 22 situation. Having degrees + experience makes an individual overqualified yet having neither makes you overqualified. It doesn't help that most employers barely train staff - nowadays you are automatically expected to know everything and this benefits employers as they don't have to spend money on training resources. Either that or you have small teams doing double (or triple) the work for low pay because again, employers want to save £££.

That's the problem with having a degree and being overqualified. 

The job centre insists you take any job to get you off benefits and look for a better job while doing the c r a p one.

The employers won't employ you for the same reason. They're afraid you leave as soon as you find better work and they have to rehire and retrain again.

That's the problem with having a degree and being overqualified. 

The job centre insists you take any job to get you off benefits and look for a better job while doing the c r a p one.

The employers won't employ you for the same reason. They're afraid you leave as soon as you find better work and they have to rehire and retrain again.

It is a catch 22 situation. Having degrees + experience makes an individual overqualified yet having neither makes you overqualified. It doesn't help that most employers barely train staff - nowadays you are automatically expected to know everything and this benefits employers as they don't have to spend money on training resources. Either that or you have small teams doing double (or triple) the work for low pay because again, employers want to save £££.