Several years ago,before my 2nd breakdown, I worked at Sheffield University for about 6 months installing equipment in the bars and cafeterias. I used to see certain faces sat in the bars from opening time until I left at 4pm, 5 days a week, so what were they studying?
I had my crack up and the doctors put me off work straight away, I got no benefits whatsoever for 3 years, apparently I didn't qualify because my wife worked! We went from having around £4k a month coming in to just over £1k and ended up going bankrupt. I would love to go back into some form of work, but not electrical, and I can't go back to dog handling either, I enquired with the highways agency, and with the police (call handler), they won't even speak to you without seeing a CV first,then when they see you've had a fairly long break, they just bin you off. OK, I may be doing little bits of maintenance work for a firm, but it isn't what I want, I want a proper full time job, but there's no help to get you back into it anymore, not some part time stuff.
It really upsets me when people can go to uni and do mickey mouse courses that will never get them a job, yet the likes of me, with a load of experience cannot get anything. I applied for the police call center early last year, and failed the online test, apparently because I was not very good at things related to the retail sector, then I was deemed unsuitable to be a call handler for the police!
I've worked with them, dealt with emergencies, helped gather evidence for major inquiries, and on a couple of occasions helped recover evidence, including one for a well known murder case that is currently in court, I've also had a year as a volunteer on the incident support team with the local fire service. so how is it that questions related to retail are deemed suitable for recruiting call handlers? It shows how stupid some of them are, recently a car was abandoned on a mates front, he rang to report it and also informed the call handler that the vehicle was not insured, at which point he was told (incorrectly) that there was no requirement in law, for a vehicle parked on the public highway to be insured, as any driver with their own insurance policy could drive it, and since it wasn't being driven then it need not be insured anyway!
In actual fact, all vehicles parked on the public highway, or any area deemed public land must be insured and a person may only drive a vehicle not insured by them if their insurance allows them to drive other vehicles, and that vehicle has a policy in force in it's own right.
There is it would appear no way for me to get an actual interview for a job unless I'm one of a certain select group, perhaps I should get a good suntan and call myself Mr Patel or something similar. lol
