On The Subject Of Useless Work Skills Courses…

From Kate Belgrave:

As readers of this site will know, I’ve been chasing the DWP for details of the useless “work skills” and “employability skills” courses that JSA claimants must attend on the threat of sanctions… people report being forced to attend courses where they have to build towers out of drinking straws, roll marbles down tubes and tear up pieces of paper to reassemble in the interests of accquiring teamwork skills… Some people I’ve spoken to even said they were threatened when they dared to complain to providers about the courses they were sent on. This all goes on because ritual humiliation of and aggression towards people who are out of work is thought to be absolutely fine in our day and age….

The DWP press office ignored my questions about this, of course, so I sent the department an FOI. I asked for lists of providers of these courses, how funding streams work, how much providers like Reed and A4e charge for attendance on these courses, what sort of quality control is in place, what standards (if any) course providers must meet to provide these courses and if the courses are indeed compulsory – ie, why are people threatened with sanctions if they refuse to attend, or say a course does not match their skill set? Surely the DWP can share its own rules re: whether people are threatened with sanctions if they refuse to attend these so-called skills courses.

Needless to say, the DWP responded with a section 12 – cost of information extraction exceeding the £600 limit, etc. The DWP said it does hold some of the requested information, though, so I’ll be redrawing the request. I’m particularly interested in the costs of these courses. People have sent me some intriguing possible cost figures – the sort of money that would suggest these course providers are on course to have a very merry Christmas.