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"Interesting stuff.  I love the way people used enterprise, adaptability, guile, etc., etc to get on and carve out their own niche.  That said, it's much harder for kids today as the range of opportunities gets wider and more complex but the number of opportunities shrinks.  More on that later. \nPart 2. \nI missed out a couple of jobs from Part 1, such as radial arm drill operator (Self taught) and Grinder- Fettler at Whiteley Read in Park Lane.  Sure there were others.. \nThere's a rather nice denouement coming up soon, but I'll stick to my plan for a bit...   \nSo anyway, I met this scouse girl in High Wycombe and we came up to Liverpool around 1971. Finding work here was next to impossible.  Basically you needed to know people.  We got married in '72 and wen't off working in hotels for a bit but it was just an exploitative racket so we came back.  After initially resisting it I finally took the plunge and applied for a job at Courtauld's in Skelmersdale, about 12 miles out of Liverpool.  Got a brand new rented house too.  In a few weeks I was a cotton weaver minding a set of looms. \nVery enjoyable, if noisy.  Soon I got a promotion to a mechanic on the wonderfully named Schlafhorst Autoconer machines and stayed until the factory closed in 1976. \nNaturally, it being me, I was made redundant precisely two weeks after completing on my first house, but we hung in there and finally after six months I got a job at a Lead Refining plant in St Helens.  Nasty, dirty, dangerous and unhealthy work.  Had a brief break from it due to a cartilage op and took a lighter job in another plastic film factory, but soon went back.  Hours were long.. 12 hour shifts averaging about 60 hours per week, but OTE reasonable dosh.... until the spectre of redundancy loomed again.  \nA bit too involved to explain but believe me we were right to occupy the plant and make the B £$%^$£s work to get rid of us.  This was the height of Thatcherism and the 'People's March for Jobs' etc.  I experienced things then that set my politics forever. \nWe were never going to win that dispute, but we made them think and got better redundancy terms than we would have without pushing them. \nSo.. redundant again at 32, I went home and Mrs Col said: \" I suppose you'll be going down the job centre for a job in the morning?\"  I replied that I would sign on and then take a month to think about my next move. \nAs it was, when I went to the Job Centre, I asked if there was anywhere I could get professional advice on my options.  \nGood enough, they arranged for me to have a chat with the Deputy Principle Careers Officer at St Helens Careers Service.  I explained that I'd had, but so far wasted, a Grammar School education.  I also said that I felt if I didn't get something sorted soon I'd be condemned to crap jobs and a cycle of 'last in.. first out' for the rest of my life.  I'd already looked into the Open University, but thought it too lengthy a process for my purposes.  \nAfter further discussion, the Careers chap and I had got to the point where me doing a degree as a Mature Student was looking interesting.  Also, I was learning that a degree in, for example Politics, would open doors to me for eventual training at Post Grad level for a whole range of possible jobs.  Liverpool Uni offered me a place on a degree in politics, but I'd have had to wait a year, because I had no A levels and would have to do a couple of essays etc., for 'Mature Matriculation'  So I literally started phoning around Polytechnics and in days had talked my way onto a Degree in Social Sciences (Politics options) at Manchester Poly. (Now Manchester Metropolitan University) \nApart from having to take my life in my hands on a 125CC Honda day in day out on the A580 to and from Manchester, it went well enough.  I got a Student Grant, and a mature student's allowance which amounted to about £3k a year in 1981.  Times were bloody hard, but Mrs Col understood. \nSecond year was the quietest, so I set about thinking what to do with my degree when I got it.  I looked into Teaching, Social Work, HR, and lots of other things. \nNext, I went back to St Helens Careers Service for further advice.. this time speaking to the top man, Mr Derek Brown, Principal Careers Officer. (Sadly, he died a year or so back)  I asked him how I could get his job and he told me about the post grad Diploma in Careers Guidance, also at Manchester Poly, on a different site. \nSo, having got my degree, I was accepted onto the Diploma in Careers Guidance Part 1.  Whilst doing the second work experience element of that course, I took a phone call from Derek Brown....  \"Colin..  I tried to catch you in college but they told me you were out on work experience..  I've got vacancies and I'd welcome an application from you\". \nI was gobsmacked, but a week later became the first on the course to get a job.. plus early release from the course to get started.. \nAfter a further 'Probationary Year',  I gained Diploma in Careers Guidance Part 2. and was off and running... \nNo need to edit any negative posts about 'Careers Blokes'. I've heard it all and experienced some of it myself...  \nBut I'll be back to tell you all how it really was...  And why I'm not over fond of Messrs Blunkett, Milburn and Gove.   \nCol. \nBA Hons. Dip CG. MICG \n"
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