WPP1 / WPP2

28064212

Jimmy848484 wrote: »

Hi all

I've been working in a WPP1 scheme job for the past 2 months. I recently received a letter from Social Welfare informing me that my JSA will be exhausted soon (in about 10 weeks). I thought I would be allowed to retain my JSA for the duration of my placement? Does anyone know if this is the case? I cannot really afford to keep the job and be on JB. I have all the expence associated with a job but I won't have the means if I lose my JSA.

I assume you mean the other way around, your JB will be exhausted, you'll have to go on JA. The WPP doesn't entitle you to anything that you wouldn't be entitled to if you weren't on it. If your JB is exhausted, you will be put on to JA, regardless of the WPP

Jimmy848484

Apologies, yes the other way around. Thanks for the reply.

mpearce

Ianmicks wrote: »

hey everyone, has anyone who has not been on the dole for 3 months been able to get into a WPP1 and keep their social welfare ??

Hi there,

wondering if anyone else has this problem/found a work-around.

In order to be eligable for WPP you have to be on the dole for 3 months - only way around this is not to have signed on in the first place.

Recently completed a post-grad - signed on 1st wk in june which according to fas means i'm not eligable till the start of september.

Would be interested in hearing if anyone had the same problem/ any solution...

MADNESS - willing to work for free (well the dole - mileage/lunches/etc.) in order to get some relevant experience and i'm not eligable, can't see the sense to this AT ALL.

mood

mpearce wrote: »

Hi there,

wondering if anyone else has this problem/found a work-around.

In order to be eligable for WPP you have to be on the dole for 3 months - only way around this is not to have signed on in the first place.

Recently completed a post-grad - signed on 1st wk in june which according to fas means i'm not eligable till the start of september.

Would be interested in hearing if anyone had the same problem/ any solution...

MADNESS - willing to work for free (well the dole - mileage/lunches/etc.) in order to get some relevant experience and i'm not eligable, can't see the sense to this AT ALL.

Do you get a milage and lunch allowance as well? It's the first I've heard of this!

mpearce

mood wrote: »

Do you get a milage and lunch allowance as well? It's the first I've heard of this!

Wires crossed - meant that you work a full week for your

dole 'minus' travel/lunches/etc.

so while you work a full week in order to get relevant experience and make a large financial sacrifice you're still not eligable (even to apply for WPP roles) until you've signed on for 3 months spent sending out applications,etc.

COMPLETE FARCE - one more example of great leadership and foresight

28064212

mpearce wrote: »

so while you work a full week in order to get relevant experience and make a large financial sacrifice you're still not eligable (even to apply for WPP roles) until you've signed on for 3 months spent sending out applications,etc.

I would assume the point is to encourage job-seekers to exhaust all other avenues before resorting to an unpaid internship.

harddworker

mood wrote: »

Has anyone actually got one of these placements? I've applied for quite a few so far.

i did was working like a horse for few months (they keept promised work hard! prove yourself ) then i got my part time contract then i was working for 3 peoples 50 and more hours per week after one month i got my first wages they did,t payed me for 22 hours i asked what happened next day my contract been terminated ! end of story after when you working for months for free employers getting more greed, they expecting of you more for less ...

eclectichoney

mpearce wrote: »

Hi there,

wondering if anyone else has this problem/found a work-around.

In order to be eligable for WPP you have to be on the dole for 3 months - only way around this is not to have signed on in the first place.

Recently completed a post-grad - signed on 1st wk in june which according to fas means i'm not eligable till the start of september.

Would be interested in hearing if anyone had the same problem/ any solution...
.

There are ways around this, if you talk to the DSFA deciding officer and explain the situation etc.

cactus10

Has anyone left a WPP? I'm currently doing one a few months and its turned out to be a complete dead end - no job prospects, not learning anything - and its costing me a lot of money with bus and rail just to get there.... Can you really just walk away without any 'penalty' ? I'm starting to feel trapped but im almost afraid FAS or the social welfare will not look kindly on me leaving..

harddworker

cactus10 wrote: »

Has anyone left a WPP? I'm currently doing one a few months and its turned out to be a complete dead end - no job prospects, not learning anything - and its costing me a lot of money with bus and rail just to get there.... Can you really just walk away without any 'penalty' ? I'm starting to feel trapped but im almost afraid FAS or the social welfare will not look kindly on me leaving..

sure you can, nobody own you ...

28064212

cactus10 wrote: »

Has anyone left a WPP? I'm currently doing one a few months and its turned out to be a complete dead end - no job prospects, not learning anything - and its costing me a lot of money with bus and rail just to get there.... Can you really just walk away without any 'penalty' ? I'm starting to feel trapped but im almost afraid FAS or the social welfare will not look kindly on me leaving..

You can definitely just walk away with no penalty. The company is more likely to be penalised for not providing adequate experience than you are.

If you don't care about a reference from the company, just send them an email saying you're not going to continue with the placement and stop going in. If you do care about a reference, give them a week or two's notice and don't be too critical, say something along the lines of it just not being for you. Make sure you inform Fás and the welfare office, otherwise it could come back to bite you in the ass

clarelad

Anyone know if companies taking on WPPs receive a grant?

Sophisticated

Companies do not receive any form of grant for taking on a person on a WPP

deise8

anyone know of companies in Munster that would provide laboratory experience in water/soil analysis as part of the WP1 that could be contacted?

jkjhngk

quick question guys:

I applied to a wpp1 job directly to the company and then reg with FAS(before any interivew for job took place), but now fas are sayin that as i didn't go through them i can't get SW - can someone confirm this, their website says the following:

Can I just contact the Provider and apply for the place without registering with FÁS and recording my expression of interest?


You can do this, but it is possible that you might go through the process of being interviewed and selected by a Provider and only then find out then that you are not eligible to keep your social welfare payments while on the placement. It is best to check that you are eligible first, before you start applying for placements.

I asked the company before interview was the job a WPP1 job and they said yes - the job was advertisd here

IBEC is also collaborating with FAS in relation to the FAS work placement programme. This programme is similar to gradlink in that it is a government supported work placement programme. Further information can be found on the site

So Can i still get SW - i received a letter from company through IBEC sayin i got job etc, but the SW insist that the letter comes from FAS and since i didn't go through FAS - what do i do? does the company have to ring up FAS or what?

jkjhngk

^^bump

28064212

jkjhngk wrote: »

quick question guys:

I applied to a wpp1 job directly to the company and then reg with FAS(before any interivew for job took place), but now fas are sayin that as i didn't go through them i can't get SW - can someone confirm this, their website says the following:



I asked the company before interview was the job a WPP1 job and they said yes - the job was advertisd here



So Can i still get SW - i received a letter from company through IBEC sayin i got job etc, but the SW insist that the letter comes from FAS and since i didn't go through FAS - what do i do? does the company have to ring up FAS or what?

The company has to ring up Fás and tell them that they got someone for the WPP position that they advertised, and give them your details

jkjhngk

28064212 wrote: »

The company has to ring up Fás and tell them that they got someone for the WPP position that they advertised, and give them your details

They told me that they have no contact with FAS - and the other interns that took up the upaid position are claimin SW as well and they didn't go through FAS either, just the letter that i got(nothin to do with FAS) was all they needed for their SW branch - is this a case of red tape?

28064212

jkjhngk wrote: »

They told me that they have no contact with FAS - and the other interns that took up the upaid position are claimin SW as well and they didn't go through FAS either, just the letter that i got(nothin to do with FAS) was all they needed for their SW branch - is this a case of red tape?

Sounds like the other interns are claiming illegally and haven't informed their SW offices. They're certainly not on the WPP - the company has to be in contact with Fás, since Fás send out an inspector during the placement to check the workers aren't being exploited and that there's no problems.

jkjhngk

28064212 wrote: »

Sounds like the other interns are claiming illegally and haven't informed their SW offices. They're certainly not on the WPP - the company has to be in contact with Fás, since Fás send out an inspector at two stages throughout the placement to check the workers aren't being exploited and that there's no problems.

ugh turns out it is under the IBEC graduate scheme, which has the same requirements and entitlements but not controlled by fas - there is hope...

clarelad

28064212 wrote: »

Sounds like the other interns are claiming illegally and haven't informed their SW offices. They're certainly not on the WPP - the company has to be in contact with Fás, since Fás send out an inspector at two stages throughout the placement to check the workers aren't being exploited and that there's no problems.

At what stages are the fas inspectors supposed to be checking in?
Have they been into you yet?

28064212

clarelad wrote: »

At what stages are the fas inspectors supposed to be checking in?
Have they been into you yet?

Firstly, I was wrong, they only call out once, not twice, I was thinking of the progress reports that have to be filled out. The inspector called to me about 4 months (roughly) into the placement

clarelad

ok good to know,thanks

robw017

I have applied to some of these WPP1 jobs. Havnt gotten many replies, and the ones I have got say I havnt got the experience...
One for a IT security company, said I really need Microsoft, Cisco, CISSP or Juniper Certs. You wud usually do these part time while working...

Dellywelly

I checked this with the IT people in FAS and while is may appear that there are more WPP than jobs there are not.

WPP advertised posts account for only 4-5 % of all posts advertised on this site since the programme was launched last year, a tiny propotion of all posts advertised.

The reason is that paid posts, jobs, fill very quickly, so they do not stay on the site for long. WPP posts do not fill as quickly and so they stay up longer on the site. I asked them how much longer and they said that as the programme was new and that many people did not know about it they left them up for 12 weeks. By contrast Jobs usually fill in a matter of a week or two.

They have more recently decided that they will advetise WPP posts for a max of 8 weeks from now on, and so they will be clearned down after that regarldess of whether they have been filled.

Makes sense. I gives people who are looking for placements enough time to see what is on offer. By offering this facility it does however make it look like there are more WPP than there really are, but I guess it is worth it to them if people get WPP posts that help them back into employment.

So there you go, mystery solved, there are not more WPP than jobs, never have been, and it looks very unlikely that they wll ever outstrip paid jobs.

Deleted User wrote: »

44.6% of full time jobs on fas.ie are now WPP 1 & 2


This is clearly taking away from real jobs

shoegirl

Its crazy. I worked in a certain area of the country and worked for one of the companies doing a lot of the WPP and am very familiar with another one.

Basically what has happened is that suddenly the entry level positions that used to open up a few times a year have vanished and been replaced by this scheme. It definitely appears to me that the scheme is being used to get free entry level workers at staff levels with high turnovers where staff leave quickly and have to be replaced frequently (I won't name names but they are well known). Basically its just displacing entry level.

Although some of those jobs originally were already subsidised under various IDA schemes. These companies have been doing this for years anwyay under other schemes.

Would be interesting to see, however, if companies keep people on after WPP is up? I think the government have been badly advised on this, whats its hurt are older job seekers and career changers who might have had a hope of a start at 17-20k or so. I'd say they will spot this soon enough though.

Dellywelly

Can you be sure that this is happing as you describe? Could it be that the companies cannot affford to offer the temorary positions that you mention?

If you really think that this is happening I think you should contact FAS and give them the deatils of the companies you suspect so that they can investigate. I am sure that they will be discrete and you will not need to be identifed. there is no harm done if you are wrong and if you are right then it is will dealt with.

Dellywelly

Shoe Girl

Can you be sure that this is happing as you describe? Could it be that the companies cannot affford to offer the temorary positions that you mention?

If you really think that this is happening I think you should contact FAS and give them the deatils of the companies you suspect so that they can investigate. I am sure that they will be discrete and you will not need to be identifed. there is no harm done if you are wrong and if you are right then it is will dealt with.

shoegirl wrote: »

Its crazy. I worked in a certain area of the country and worked for one of the companies doing a lot of the WPP and am very familiar with another one.

Basically what has happened is that suddenly the entry level positions that used to open up a few times a year have vanished and been replaced by this scheme. It definitely appears to me that the scheme is being used to get free entry level workers at staff levels with high turnovers where staff leave quickly and have to be replaced frequently (I won't name names but they are well known). Basically its just displacing entry level.

Although some of those jobs originally were already subsidised under various IDA schemes. These companies have been doing this for years anwyay under other schemes.

Would be interesting to see, however, if companies keep people on after WPP is up? I think the government have been badly advised on this, whats its hurt are older job seekers and career changers who might have had a hope of a start at 17-20k or so. I'd say they will spot this soon enough though.

Denerick

This programme is a complete farce. The government is subsidising employers who would have been taking on semi skilled workers (Such as basic admin work, some trades etc.) anyway. This is an absolute last resort for me. If I don't find anything by December I may consider it but its really depressing me as employers are effectively abusing what would otherwise have been a useful programme.

Furthermore, its a fúcking disgrace that they are getting away with demanding 40 hours per week to do shít unskilled jobs like data entry for 200 hours a week. In any other country, we'd be protesting at the Dickensian injustice and greediness of it all.

This is not the same as an internship. An internship is useful as you are hoping to break your way into a fast paced and well paid profession (Such as the law, accountancy, journalism etc.) These are high skilled employees who are expected to slum it for a couple of years before placement. Its a complete scandal that the bottom of the rung jobs are been abused like this.

jimoc

A much better program would be a subsidized WPP.
Someone recieving social welfare gets a position keeps their social welfare payment and the company then pays them enough to get them to the minimum wage amount.

As it is, no one is going to take up a position that costs them money to get to if all they are getting is the social welfare payment.