Education/employment for young adults

Thanks so much for the help and support with previous posts regarding school issues. This forum is incredibly helpful - hence this post.

I have a younger sister, we share an absent, biological waste of space that both of our mothers were unfortunate enough to have a relationship with in the past. My mum had her head screwed on at a relatively young age and moved out of London with me and raised me well. My sister was not so lucky and had a quite an unstable upbringing.

She moved house and schools 3 times during her 2 GCSE years and subsequently left school with no qualifications. She's started courses in her later teens though failed to complete any due to housing issues and has lived in London, Wrexham, Wiltshire, back to London then Staffordshire in the past 5 years. She moved to Stafford 18 months ago and I helped her get settled, paid her deposit and got her help with benefits, the only thing I asked in return is that she found herself a job. So far no job.

It's not for lack of trying, I'm constantly sending her web links for jobs advertised, everything from care to catering, bar work and office based apprentices, she is applying but getting very few interviews and no offers. She's lacked confidence and motivation which has worsened with every rejection, but she has recently completed a 12 week Prince's Trust course designed to help in these areas of her life. The course has been brilliant for her and she seems much happier and far more motivated. I'm concerned that a few weeks of back to the job centre and nowhere to go of a weekday morning will see her slip back into her old routine.

Her age is a problem, she'll be 20 before the next intake on any college course and cannot fund a course herself, her lack of GCSE's put many employers off but it's not a lack of capability, just circumstance at the time, nobody however seems to be willing to take a chance on her. She's done voluntary work in a charity shop in Stafford and has some catering experience from before she moved here.

I want to help, but I don't know where to start, I can't seem to find anything that can put her on the right track because of her age, under 19 or over 25 and there are options for education but currently zip. I don't know if thing's have changed in recent years, I bounced from job to job to job at her age and have worked in virtually every pub and fast food/takeaway establishment in a 15 mile radius, I never struggled to find work even temporary work while I was at college, it wasn't until I'd finished my A levels that I actually stayed in one place for more than a year. In reality I think there was only two interviews for jobs before the age of 21 that I didn't get. Is there less unskilled work now or are people just more picky?

If anyone hears of any jobs going, aside from indeed and the like which she trawls hourly would be thoroughly appreciated. Any funding routes for NVQ's or GCSE retakes would also be greatly appreciated, as would any suggestions for anything I can bully her into to get her out of the house at 9 am on Monday morning.

Thanks guys and girls.

Thanks everyone, I've sent her the links to look through and one of the NOVA training ones looks decent, I don't think she'd searched through them before either, so it's another arrow in the job hunting bow.

I'm not sure about the SARH courses in terms of getting her a job but I've said she ought to pop along, if only to get out of the house and interact with people.

@c0tt0nt0p she did do some volunteering in a charity shop, they did some till training, shop opening, dealing with stock and customer service etc. but it was only a day a week, they worked with the job centre so took on quite a few people from there, there wasn't enough work to get a real experience although anything is better than nothing, I know she left there to do the Prince's Trust course I'm not sure if there is a position still there or not but she did apply to a couple externally from the Job centre and unfortunately (fortunately for them obviously) everywhere was fully staffed.

Mikinton said:

Would employment agencies be any good? When my daughter was between contracts over Christmas, she signed on and they pointed to the agencies, and they found her an office job (at "living wage" rate) fairly quickly. I should say she has a fairly long employment history in her field, but little in the job they found her.

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She approached a couple of agencies, catering and care but they require a driving licence which she doesn't have unfortunately. As for the office based roles I know she contacted a couple but because of her academic qualifications or lack of as well as no experience she didn't hear back from them. She's limited to the Stafford area or somewhere within easily accessible public transport. People expect temps to be able to hit the ground running and it would take time to train, she is competent on a computer with office programs and she's great with people, I think she would excel in a customer service role.

I've just sent her a message now suggesting she do a food hygiene, first aid and fire safety in the work place course though the three total in excess of £300.

Are these beneficial in any way? I would assume these would look good on her CV and show willingness to learn as well as commitment to want to work but in reality do employers actually look at these things and do they want them? I know it wouldn't hurt for her to have them but do they justify the cost? It's easy for me, we work to an international certification criteria as a minimum and we can't employ anyone with out it. It's hard and expensive to get the licence's but they cover everything needed to do the job and more, well at least in terms of paperwork, they still let the odd one slip through the net with no real idea.