[Gllug] Graduates paying for IT training before employment

[ted.bell]

I have seen at least one other example of people being asked to pay for their 
own training with the promise of work if they pass. Driving and ridding 
instructors are regularly asked to go through this now.

I suspect in this instance it is not a good idea and the person concerned 
would be better advised to go to one of the regular recruitment shows in 
central London. They happen around this time of year. Details in Thursdays 
Telegraph (I think).

Ted

On Sunday 24 August 2003 16:11, Alasdair G Kergon wrote:
> [Forwarded protecting anonymity]
>
> Has anyone come across this sort of thing before?
>
> Alasdair
>
>
> ----- Forwarded message -----
>
> Subject: Urgent: Need advice on an unusual job offer.
>
> X graduated from uni and has been looking for work. Recently he went to
> an interview at a company called ICS.
>
> http://www.icslondon.com/
>
> They put out a request for IT consultants (some of whom might be
> trainees) who were graduates. Now, considering that X has just got
> out of Uni with a degree in sport science, he's not exactly
> able to hit the ground running. What the company have basically said to
> him is that they'll put him on some of of their training courses (***at
> his own expense***) and then once he's done those and passed the exam,
> then they'll offer him a job at roughly 24k. I'm not sure what all the
> courses he's doing are, but I know that it adds up to about 3 months of
> academic training and a 3 months placement. As far as the academic
> courses go, I don't know what all of them are, but I do know that they
> include these two:
>
> http://www.icslondon.com/training/mcse.asp
> http://www.icslondon.com/training/mcsd.asp
>
> The issue:
>
> As you may notice, as far as money goes, we're not exactly talking
> about peanuts here, and basically our concerns are that if you're
> going to take someone on as an employee, it's a bit fishy to require
> themselves to be trained at their own expense, don't you think? My
> position is that the courses may well be useful and will result in X
> being well qualified in the field, but it's a lotta dosh to fork
> out, and basically, given the amount you're paying for training, and
> then the amount that they pay you as salary, you probably won't do much
> better than breakeven after the first year, and that's negating the fact
> that one is not taking one's entire salary just to pay off the training
> costs.
>
> What ICS have said to X is that they will train him for 6 months (so
> there may be more courses in addition to the ones I mentioned, and a 3
> month placement is included in this period) and then guarantee him a job
> afterwards at 24K.
>
> We now see that the training is OK but expensive.  However, I am trying
> to get a feel for how unusual it is for a company to ask for someone to
> pay for their training up front and then employ them afterwards,
> provided they have succeeded in the training.
>
> I am wondering whether this is a sign of the times.  Now that there are
> no jobs for life and there is no such thing as job security, only skills
> security do IT sector companies do much less training themselves for
> their employees/ potential employees?  We have to remember that it was
> not a graduate training scheme ad which he replied to - the job merely
> said they were looking for IT consultants, including some trainees, who
> needed to be graduates.


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