FAS group engagement session??

Ammsy500

I got a letter today saying I have been scheduled to attend a group engagment session with other job seekers at FAS in Baldoyle next week. It says after 3 months on unemployment payments I have been reffered to FAS for support and guidance to help re-enter employment etc

Just wondering has anybody attended one of these? What am I to expect? Do they want me to sign up to a course of some sort? Did anyone get any work from this?

Sorry loads of questions Im just curious as I am doing a part time course at the moment that the welfare office already know about so Im not really interested in doing a pointless course in FAS when Im already studying one i am interested in.

Thanks

flas

i got a letter from the social welfare telling me i have not attended one of these meetings with fas, that i have recieved a letter with all the details of it but i did not recieve any such letter from fas about anything. this letter from the social welfare is actually the first i have heard about it and it kind of has me worried now, what if they think i just didnt bother showing up? its not like i have not been trying to get work i have had job interviews and all just never got offered any job from them!

im worried about the meeting with the social welfare as they are saying my claim is under review because i missed this meeting i had not gotten any notice about. if anyone knows what could happen or what this fas thing was about any help would be appriciated!?

x in the city

Ammsy500 wrote: »

I got a letter today saying I have been scheduled to attend a group engagment session with other job seekers at FAS in Baldoyle next week. It says after 3 months on unemployment payments I have been reffered to FAS for support and guidance to help re-enter employment etc

Just wondering has anybody attended one of these? What am I to expect? Do they want me to sign up to a course of some sort? Did anyone get any work from this?

Sorry loads of questions Im just curious as I am doing a part time course at the moment that the welfare office already know about so Im not really interested in doing a pointless course in FAS when Im already studying one i am interested in.

Thanks

is cowen also invited ?


actually, that letter is just crap. its not like there tons and tons of jobs floating about like ffs.

flas

flas wrote: »

i got a letter from the social welfare telling me i have not attended one of these meetings with fas, that i have recieved a letter with all the details of it but i did not recieve any such letter from fas about anything. this letter from the social welfare is actually the first i have heard about it and it kind of has me worried now, what if they think i just didnt bother showing up? its not like i have not been trying to get work i have had job interviews and all just never got offered any job from them!

im worried about the meeting with the social welfare as they are saying my claim is under review because i missed this meeting i had not gotten any notice about. if anyone knows what could happen or what this fas thing was about any help would be appriciated!?

Exact same thing happened to me about 4 years ago. I had to go to a meeting with the SW to explain myself, and just insisted I'd never receieved any letter! It helped my case that I'd already voluntarily registered with Fas, I'm not sure they really believed me about the letter, but suppose I had no reason to lie since I had already been to Fas myself.

Ammsy500

x in the city wrote: »

is cowen also invited ?

LoL I hope so that might mean its just a big piss up than

Flas on the letter it says if you fail to attend your jobseekers payment may be reduced or stopped completely but Im sure if you explain to them you never got the letter etc it should be fine.

flas

thanks for the quick replies, easied my worries somewhat. my money was in the post office this morning thank God.

also recieved a letter this morning about another assesment seeing as i have moved house, but think thats just to make sure im living where i say i am, i already have all the relevant documentation in with them for the last 6 or 7 weeks since i moved into my new place, thats on at half 9 thursday and my other meeting is at half 12, probably with the same person! think its just formalities at this stage. if it means they know im not just milking the system and am actually in financial need then that is good.

topdost

bump to an old thread , what happens in these meatings

Ammsy500

topdost wrote: »

bump to an old thread , what happens in these meatings

Nothing....from what I remember! You sit and listen to somebody giving a power point presentation on what fas is about and what 'opurtunities' are available. You come back the next day for a meeting with one of them and they look over your cv and tell you what courses etc they do...which is on their website. They basically treat you like a bit of an idiot. Waste Of Time!!

rebecca82

i have a meeting on thurs at 9,30 how long does it go on for??

Ammsy500

rebecca82 wrote: »

i have a meeting on thurs at 9,30 how long does it go on for??

About an hour at most.

topdost

So its 2 days involved not 1 because letter says just 1 ( but it says may be called again )

rebecca82

yes its 2 days i had meeting (aprox 45mins) on thurs, on tue i have meeting wit someone from fas going through jobs, experience i have courses i want to go for and any other help!!:D

DFWM091

Ammsy500 wrote: »

Nothing....from what I remember! You sit and listen to somebody giving a power point presentation on what fas is about and what 'opurtunities' are available. You come back the next day for a meeting with one of them and they look over your cv and tell you what courses etc they do...which is on their website. They basically treat you like a bit of an idiot. Waste Of Time!!

Finding this thread was a huge relief because to be honest i didn't know what to expect with this little session they're having tomorrow. I had an unknown idea that it might be a power point shin dig, and i proved my thoughts right. Thing is i don't know what need i have for going to this because i'm signing up to a PLC course as i speak and will be doing that later on in September hopefully so iv'e got my future worked out. Why do they waste money on pointless exercises such as this when people might already be considering other avenues to go down, waste of state money really to me. Anyway thanks for the info everyone!

shader01

Hi there,
my wife lost her job a while ago and is on jobseeker benefit. She was called in for a group engagement meeting last Tuesday in FAS but she misread the letter and put next Monday in her Calendar instead of last Tuesday. She has now discovered that the meeting was on Tuesday and that she has missed it. It says in the letter that, "if you fail to attend, your jobseeker's payment may be reduced or stopped completely". She is worried now that her payment will be affected and is in a terrible state about it. I told her that she shouldn't be worried, that it was a genuine mistake and she should just be honest and tell SW that she made a mistake. She actually had a job interview on the Tuesday morning although she is not using this as an excuse but she is genuinely available for work.

However, I see in the UK that they are cutting your payment if you fail to turn up for meetings like this, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2347281/Unemployed-graduate-benefits-stopped-missing-job-centre-appointment-INTERVIEW.html so this has concerned me somewhat and when I search google I can only find this post on boards.ie but nobody has come back to say how they got on despite this thread being over a year old.

Can some of the previous posters let us know how they got on or has anyone else missed an appointment like this and how did you get on?

snubbleste

Contact SWO immediately.

Balagan

Payments are indeed being cut http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0719/463427-welfare-payments-cut/

As advised, best for your wife to go to the SW office immediately and explain. No harm to bring along evidence of the interview she attended on that day also.

IsOrangeDee

Same thing happened to me in September, rang and told them I'd forgotten and was asked to call in for the open clinic instead. Thought that was the end of it until I got a letter a few weeks later from social welfare with an appointment to see someone to explain my absence. Just went in and said I had a job interview the same day and I'd forgotten to call and cancel the meeting, and was just told not to let it happen again, wasn't even in there two minutes! I wouldn't panic about it from what I could tell you'd only really be in trouble if it happened more than once.

ClareLou

Im so glad I cam across this. I have to attend one of these meetings on Thursday! I'm all new to this, so I've been pretty nervous at the thoughts of going. It seems to be okay though, from what I've gathered Around an hour on a power point presentation on what Fas is all about and what opportunities are there ?

wmpdd3

Yep I went to one about 4 months ago, it was an hour long and most people there had just signed on so much of it was not applicable.

It went through BTWEA / BTEA etc and the childcare supports for when you do courses etc.

Arising from this, everyone was given a interview time a week later. We were to have our CV if we had one and evidence of applying for employment.

I arrived to this meeting with my CV and details of the jobs I'd applied for and the courses I was interested in.

I could see the person before me had spend his 1 hour meeting filling out his CV. There were glass windows in the office.

The lady seemed relieved at what I had brought, she offered €500 support for a course I always wanted to do and gave me a letter saying I wouldn't have to sign on for a year. In all I have signed up for 5 short courses and have completed 4 of them and hope to start a 2 year course in 3 months time, so as long as I stay on the courses, the dept will not be in touch.

In contrast, my brother was waiting to be called as an apprentice, he had a letter saying he had passed his interview, he was called in for a one to one. He turned up with his letter from his perspective employer and according to him he was treated very harshly. He didn't bring evidence of application for any other job as he had this one. His interview was followed up with 2 phone calls from the same person. On the second call, my brother asked what will happen if he doesn't take these phone calls, he was told he would be cut off. He missed a call the third day and was cut off. Thankfully he started his job 3 weeks later.

Hope this helps.