Community Programme Scheme

[philipdalton]

Did anyone go on a Community Programme Scheme in the eighties? You have to have been unemployed for a few months before you could go on one. They were replaced by Employment Training.

[Semi42]

My uncle , who was a benefits leech, was forced to go on one , early 80s . His was called the StEP programme I think . Special temporary employment programme. I was an apprentice but we also had YOPs, youth opportunities programme and YTS, which was youth training scheme (dubbed by us as young, thick and stupid)
always thought it was a sneaky way for the thatcher government to pull the unemployment figures down in that era. I remember the news at the time had a feature every night of how many job losses there were that day, it was frightening.

[W1 Rover]

I remember the YOPs schemes during the early 80's. I'm posting from a London perspective, Ken Livingstone was at the helm of the GLC if my memory serves me well. Despite relatively high unemployment at the time it wasn't difficult to find work if you wanted it.

[philipdalton]

I've read in a magazine of some 16-year-old boy who committed suicide because of being unable to find work. I think perhaps anyone who commits suicide for that particular reason is perhaps a little spoilt and therefore cannot face life when they can't have everything their own way. I've been on disability benefits since the recession of the early nineties but have had various voluntary jobs and been on various college/computer courses. I remember finding a way of consoling myself to accept my predicament, I remember saying to my mother that in the famine ridden African countries they couldn't provide food for people, whereas in our country they couldn't provide jobs for people.

[George 1978]

Sounds too much like Community Service or something like that.