The Student Room Group

Work Coach DWP

Hi All,

I have recently accepted a position as a work coach to start a brand new career.

I have never done any work like this before but have always had the ambition to help people who have fallen on hard times and genuinely need help.

What I would like to know is, what does the actual role entail? can anyone give me a brief idea of what a usual day looks like.

Also, What is the first few weeks of training like? any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Reply 1
Original post by bobcat79
Hi All,
I have recently accepted a position as a work coach to start a brand new career.
I have never done any work like this before but have always had the ambition to help people who have fallen on hard times and genuinely need help.
What I would like to know is, what does the actual role entail? can anyone give me a brief idea of what a usual day looks like.
Also, What is the first few weeks of training like? any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Congrats, Where have you got a job?
Reply 2
I resigned so only have 7 months experience.

I dealt with Universal Credit claimants who either had no job or worked few hours so were being encouraged to pick up more hours.

Each job centre is typically open 9-5 mon to fri, with some open on Saturdays which will require occasional Sat work, plus the odd late shift past 5.

Each job centre will have a different customer demographic. Mine was urban which covered pockets that were in the top 10% of social deprivation.

Around 80% of my unemployed caseload were not work ready and had significant barriers to move into work. One of my colleagues who had the youth caseload that had extra barriers estimated that over 90% of his customers were not capable of moving into employment in the short to medium term.

For example, most of my customers spoke English as a second language while around a quarter could not speak English and many of them could not read or write in any language and also had never worked.

The vast majority of my customers who had regular appointments because they were in part time work but were expected to be in full time employment so their earnings were very low did everything they could to resist progressing in anyway. They did not want to work full time but were mandated to come to the job centre and were frustrated with this.

Each Work Coach had a workload in my KC of at least 120 people and we had back to back appointments with very little admin time. During periods of staff shortage, which was often, my colleagues had caseloads of 200 plus.

The majority of appointments are 10 minutes in duration with others set at 20 if there was any space in the diary, with 30 mins every quarter to go over their work commitments and 59 minutes for a new customer on their first appointment.

What do you want to know?
Reply 3
KC = JC for job centre (typo)
59 minutes for an initial appointment is a typo, its 50 minutes.
Reply 4
Original post by Compyjo
I resigned so only have 7 months experience.
I dealt with Universal Credit claimants who either had no job or worked few hours so were being encouraged to pick up more hours.
Each job centre is typically open 9-5 mon to fri, with some open on Saturdays which will require occasional Sat work, plus the odd late shift past 5.
Each job centre will have a different customer demographic. Mine was urban which covered pockets that were in the top 10% of social deprivation.
Around 80% of my unemployed caseload were not work ready and had significant barriers to move into work. One of my colleagues who had the youth caseload that had extra barriers estimated that over 90% of his customers were not capable of moving into employment in the short to medium term.
For example, most of my customers spoke English as a second language while around a quarter could not speak English and many of them could not read or write in any language and also had never worked.
The vast majority of my customers who had regular appointments because they were in part time work but were expected to be in full time employment so their earnings were very low did everything they could to resist progressing in anyway. They did not want to work full time but were mandated to come to the job centre and were frustrated with this.
Each Work Coach had a workload in my KC of at least 120 people and we had back to back appointments with very little admin time. During periods of staff shortage, which was often, my colleagues had caseloads of 200 plus.
The majority of appointments are 10 minutes in duration with others set at 20 if there was any space in the diary, with 30 mins every quarter to go over their work commitments and 59 minutes for a new customer on their first appointment.
What do you want to know?
Thank you for getting back to me and giving a great run down.

How did you find the job itself?

I know my job centre is only open Mon to Fri 9-5. will that be the only shift pattern from your experience?

How did the training go?

Thank you again

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