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I think it’s good that there are schemes especially setup and reserved for younger people.
This, I’ve just been told that my 12 years experience in a role I was applying for (IT technical sales support) wasn’t enough, compared to other applicants. They were offering just above minimum wage for this role.
I really wouldn’t want to be new to the job market right now.
If your wife has such a passion for outdoors, how come she hasn’t been volunteering / training / clocking up rides or walks for the past decade?
Sorry your last reply seemed to suggest she needed more than just lots of walking/riding experience the way I read it. She has lots of walking/riding miles under her belt but that’s it. We’ve looked at volunteering stuff over the last couple of years but we don’t know where to look and haven’t been able to find anything she can travel to yet.
For example we looked at wildlife charities (RSPB the main one) but all their sites are too far away to travel to for us (nearest RSPB place is other side of Leeds to us in Huddersfield). There doesn’t seem to be much in our corner of West Yorks. I would have never have thought that volunteering with Scouts or whatever would be useful, she is already a kids leader (voluntary) at our church where we do lessons/group stuff but nothing outdoorsy, is that any use?
I’m trying to not sound negative, and I want to be positive about it but whenever I start to look at options I just seem to be up against a brick wall.
Your reply on the last page has been the most useful thing I have read in the last couple of years which may help her... so thanks for that.
She really isn’t some spoilt woman who wants a fancy job in the countryside to look all “Country Living”, she’s a grafter for sure!!
She is often in floods of tears about her job situation, especially after she chats to people who like their jobs, as she’s never had that herself.
I hear you, and I can't imagine the stress she feels.
It is a tough job market and industry at the best of times. At others have said, the job market generally is awful at present.
IMO she should get *any* job in an attempt to earn some money and ability to move towards this outdoor work.
There doesn’t seem to be much in our corner of West Yorks. I would have never have thought that volunteering with Scouts or whatever would be useful, she is already a kids leader (voluntary) at our church where we do lessons/group stuff but nothing outdoorsy, is that any use?
Yes. If outdoor [b]education[/b] is the area she wants to be in, then any volunteering with children or youth would help. Sunday school, reading with kids in school, Duke of Edinburgh with the secondary school, scouts, bike club youth coaching... There's also a few wildlife trusts around West Yorkshire.
Of course the double whammy at present is that I've not completed our DofE expedition last year with BB's, and half of the above is on zoom at present...
As I said previously, I used to work in a team that looked after early careers for a big corporate, ran some of the funding / pilot programmes and worked on a number of cross-sector projects that were the precursor to the new apprenticeship schemes introduced in 2017. We'd typically recruit 500-1,000 apprentices each year across a number of UK sites. These were both traditional level 3/engineering apprenticeships as well as degree-level and masters level. We'd get about 8k/trainee from Government for a L3, but the total cost for each apprentice including wages was about £80k over the 42 months. We had 90% retention after 10 years - UK average is only 1 in 3 apprentices complete their training. For graduates, you're lucky if you still have half after 5 years. Consequently, when recruiting we'd get about 100 applicants for each job - we simply stop recruiting because experience told us that 600 would meet the minimum criteria, we'd then take 300 to an assessment centre and 1 in 3 would be offered a job - in most cases, all 300 were good enough, we just didn't have enough places and processing more applications was just wasting money. We did set up a programme to redirect screened candidate to other employers and offered to train them - the response from other employers was under-whelming and the nub of the problem in the UK - most employers don't want to pay for good training. The other problem is the stove-piping of money in Government between tertiary/secondary, FE (including apprenticeships) and Higher (Universities) and there being few effective mechanisms to create flexible learning models more suited to modern careers.
In terms of the OP, if the recruiting co is quibbling about £8k's worth of funding then they really don't sound like a great employer.
In terms of the OP, if the recruiting co is quibbling about £8k’s worth of funding then they really don’t sound like a great employer.
I don't think that's really fair. £8k is a sizeable amount to some employers, whether or not they can afford it isn't a measure of how good an employer they will be. If it's a charity, then that extra £8k might well have to come out of a pot where it would otherwise help many.
Also, I don't think they're saying that that is the reason. Perhaps they just value the chance to create an opportunity for a someone in a generation that looks like it's getting a very raw deal.
I once heard a quote from someone who owned a building company along the lines of “we can’t get decent brickies/joiners etc” but they didn’t want to take on apprentices. Complain about the state of training but not willing to train themselves.
Has she thought about gardening. It’s fairly broad from being someone who mows and tidy up old people gardens to having a good knowledge of plants and design. It’s far from Chelsea flower show. Lady up the road employs a fair few from design through to build.
Whereas there is nothing around for older people who can’t get work and need to retrain. No wonder there’s so many older people on long term unemployment.
Heath and social care. You can get a taste at a basic level then train if you want to. Dunno the latest state on bursaries for full time training but oddly enough you can train as a nurse part time thru a variety of schemes. You can do HNC ( or whatever its called now) and HND completely while working that then gives you entry into nursing training at 2nd year level
there are all the PAMs - professions allied to medicine - physio Occupational therapist, podiatrisat
Older folk are more than welcome into this world. Indeed often preferred Many routes in and jobs from 2 weeks on the job training to post grad entry!
There's some good info on the thread already, especially some of the harder elements of gaining access to a paid role "outdoors" and the tough reality of many of the jobs. I'm in ecology and as she has an interest in wildlife, I can say that my world of work isn't that different to outdoor education - a large number of people volunteering and snapping away at any paid role in the industry. I can however say that this voluntary base has both young people and people in a career change/ retirement situation.
Once in work, there are a few strands to follow early on (huge generalisations) - a ranger-type role which would be very hands on and physical; a travel-type role which may not suit your circumstances; and a consultant/researcher type role, which will bias study and report writing (which you said she doesn't like). So that sounds like a tough and potentially not very rewarding direction.
The one thing I'd suggest in ecology is user pressure research. There is an ongoing area of study researching and surveying how people affect designated sites etc, including travel and how they use them. I can see a more experienced person in face-to-face skills and who is approachable could have an angle there and is more niche than most people going in who want physical or protected species work. Check out companies like Footprint Ecology who specialise in this kind of thing as part of your looking around.