Published on 12, July, 2020
My Universal Credit, work coach referred me to learndirect for a week long customer care course.
Yesterday I had my interview.
A lot of form filling, name, address, phone no. Email, national insurance, next of kin phone, etc etc etc.
Q... What is my ideal job?
What job I would refuse to do?
Any disabilities ???????
Around 10 Q about my style of learning. Multiple choice with 3 choices.
Formal face to face interview.
A Maths test.
Place four numbers in order from lowest to highest?
Someone spends £10 a week on travel. How much will he spend on travel in four weeks? Show all workings.
Etc
An English test.
Circle wrongly spelt words.
Add Capitals and full stops to a sentence.
Identify a verb in a sentence. They even explained that a verb is an action or doing word.
Week long course starts on Monday 29th Jan.
I attended the first day of the care course yesterday.
The register had 21 names. We had 18 attendees in the morning. I counted 17 in the afternoon. Someone else signed themselves in next to my name, I crossed them out and signed in myself.
One of my quirks is counting people!!!
For me the course went bad. I lacked sleep, couldn't concentrate and I didn't even understand what some of the questions meant or why they were asking them.
At the start, they went through the standard government approved/forced talk about British values, extremism, radicalisation, discrimination. And how we are expected to respect diversity in all it's forms of race, colour, religion, sexual orientation etc etc.
Then onto use of the computers. Login, passwords and warnings about accessing porn and other undesirable sites.
More form filling and signing and dating. Typical City and Guilds paperwork.
Course itself unremarkable/boring.
A group session asking each one to give examples of good and bad customer care experience.
Thirty common terms used in customer care and what they mean.
Filling out a workbook, where I was too embarrassed to ask what a couple of the questions even meant ?
Constant interruptions as people walked through our classroom to get to two other classrooms.
I hope today will be better.
Maybe you can use this experience to feedback to show how this is not the best environment/situation for you to be in.
Another poster of advice on behaviour.
Exhibit 'B':
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/02/teenager-lloyd-gunton-jailed-cardiff-pop-concert-terrorist-attack-plot
Q.E.D.
Isn't it a bit racist to call such things "British values"? I mean, it implies somehow that others don't have the same values and Britain is somehow superior at it. If it said "Deutsche Werte" then you could be pretty sure that you are looking at propaganda of a German right-wing party. I'm not joking.
This is current and very topical.
A screenshot of today's times.
I think if having 'British values' means we should be creepily observing everyone that closely, and judging their every move, we should probably be glad not to have them!
I've heard of the Prevent Strategy but I've never seen posters or leaflets like this anywhere.
I've done a lot of care work with vulnerable and difficult adults in the past. So that's what this course is targeted at.
Today we did listening skills and clear talking skills. Working in groups.
Previously we did customer expectations and the importance of customer satisfaction.
So course is getting better and I suspect half the group are undiagnosed on the spectrum.
and are you considering a role in care work?
British values!!!! I wasn’t aware I shared values with most other people! Maybe my values aren’t considered British!
Has the course got any better for you Robert?
Here is another one in our classroom.
Interesting observation. That’s actually crazy and scary. I do the prevent course on line as part of an annual thing that I’m required to do for the online teaching job I have. I thought it was quite interesting but I’m seeing it in a different light now.
Good Fortune, Good Sir, and especially as I see this reply (to myself)...
I Posted that last, for want of Posting something at all, as I continue to follow this Thread, and was "lighthearted"... But now, seeing this... Thank You for both your words and your picture! This is scary, and I know even more why I get picked upon by "Security Services" so much at times (I did not choose my UserName lightly)... yet more "New Threads" for me to consider beginning...? I really do not know what to say about all of this, apart from constantly Thanking You for starting and for continuing this Thread, Robert123-Sir...!
I was the same, I was going through that list thinking, OMG that’s me!! Lol!
Indeed! How times have changed.
My past educational experience has been seeing posters on walls that were relevant to the academic content of what was taught.
Chemistry classes had wall charts of the periodic table.
Geography classes, maps of the world and countries.
Or work done by previous students.
Now.. it's all political and government ideology.
Greetings, and to contribute to this kind of "Sport"...
That "Do you recognise this person?" Poster could well be describing Microsoft or Apple. But for old folks such as myself (Forty Years old), life was so much easier in the Eighties, where a miscreant was easily identifiable by their Superior Intelligence, Aloofness, Evil Beard, and UpperClass English Accent....
How times have changed...(!)
That's exactly what I was thinking whilst reading that!! (Well, if 'Asperger's' is my new religion, that is.)
Exhibit 'A':
www.independent.co.uk/.../parents-of-jihadi-jack-letts-claim-he-has-mental-health-condition-and-is-not-fighting-for-a-a6855911.html
Many a true word is spoken in jest.
Does anyone have any data on the proportion of folk who recently "ran off to the Middle East" but later turned out to be (or were already known to be) on the spectrum?
I suspect the answer is a resounding "no", because many of the individuals concerned will now be dead. Still, it's an intriguing conjecture that ought to get further attention, (but probably won't).