Training and courses.

I am part way through some training in diagnostic interviewing, it is ok as in theory they are skills you can take anywhere. I have been a volunteer for the past two years in an independent advice centre in the voluntary sector. They give out free welfare rights advice on benefits, tax credits etc and offer help, support, guidance and representation at Tribunal.  I have done lots of training and courses through them. They have given me loads of opportunities to really widen my knowledge and views. I have shadowed the staff and other volunteers together with the training and now use those skills and information and am an adviser there. The Centre has just had a major cut from the council, in fact it was one of their core funders which of course has had a major inpact on them. This is a time when these Centres are needed more than ever as more and more people lose there jobs or have hours cut and struggle to find anywhere to go for help. Ironicly this Council has cut back on staff so it is the very people who they have made redundant who are now seeking advice.  With many never having faced unemployment, it is so alien to them as they become so confused about the options available to them.
These services need protecting and it seems until people are affected directly they do not seem to care. But as we all know everyone will be affected some way or some how by the drastic cuts that are threatening our services which people rely on every day. And cuts mean job losses which will never amount to anything good only a larger unemployment queue.