Does anyone receive proper training on the W/Programme?
Presently, I am not on the W/Programme, but wish to enquire if any participants attend vocational courses? : Such as construction trades etc. If so to what qualifications are attained and what’s the duration of the courses? Or is the reality, you sit with a telephone book & telephone/internet access and W/Programme Staff wishing to change your CV every other day and wanting you to `role play` in mock interviews. So, after two years wasted, on completion you end up little better prepared for employment than when you started!

think you may have answered your own question there. Nothing but the latter with my providers.

I asked (with not much hope of a positive response)about this. I was told "we only do training that will lead to a job outcome". I argued that a course in PLSQL or ITIL Qualification or similar would improve my employability and so (in the jargon) "take me further on my journey to the sunny uplands of employment". No deal! They are only interested in getting you into a job (any job) and will only access basic stuff like basic numeracy and literacy. I think this is because the pimps get a kickback from people like learn direct for each person they introduce. I have read on another site that the amount per person for completing a basic course is £1500 kickback (this was a pimp ex-employee who was responsible for monitoring payments). I suspect that this is European Social Fund money payable to Learn Direct then with a backhander to Pimpo.
So if you can't read, write or do sums you will be signposted to a basic course (you may even be if you have degrees coming out of your ears!). As for proper training - forget it - they will say "once you are in a job you can pay for your own training - now where did I put those cleaning/zero hour job details?"

Have looked up what the DWP say in their Guidance Notes - Chapter 13 covers this and can be accessed here: www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/wp-pg-chapter-13.pdf
As is usual the DWP view of reality is vastly more optimistic than that actually delivered by the pimps. But if you want to be assertive then I suggest you have a good read of Chapter 13 and have a look at the courses available e.g. from Learn Direct www.learndirect.co.uk/wales-eng/ (different options in Scotland.) If you see something you like then tell pimpo about it and quote chapter 13 of DWP guidance notes. You will probably need to do this more than once and in writing before they take you seriously.
Incidentally 2 years of suffering useless courses on CV writing, interviews etc. etc. is probably preferable to 30 hours per week of scrubbing pavements which is what some of us have coming our way under the CAP!

Keep your mouth shut about training. The only 'training' they give is to 'move you in a new direction' i.e. get a sh*t minimum wage job.
My provider are always banging on about food hygenie courses so, after my years of experience and training I can go and get a job at Burger King (my provider is in love with Burger King).
But hey, what would I know as, I quote 'I'm too pretty to get a job' (sorry to keep banging on about this but I am fuming about that being said to me).
Sit there and shut up is my advice to you.

When my 'advisor' asked me, (in a 'i'm your mate, you can confide in me' tone of voice), if there was any other areas I'd be interested in or had thought about before, i said i was thinking about looking into becoming a psychotherapist, the subject of other areas was dropped instantly. Don't know why, maybe they wouldn't be able to help me with a work placement in that field, so no bonus, no point. If i'd said retail or food I'm sure they'd have found me a work placement stacking shelves so I could put it on my cv as experience in other fields I was interested in and they could claim they'd done something for me. As it is all I ever done was job search which I could quite easily done at home, which I told them, which led to them wanting me to email my job search to them. I refused as that would have given them my e-mail account. They upped my jobsearch attendance from fortnightly to weekly. Didn't attend anymore appointments as found a job (fingers crossed it lasts). Just signed section 4 of the JSag with date I wanted claim to finish. Never bothered telling the pimps. On the first missed appointment they rang, I didn't answer, they left no message, heard nothing from them since, (fingers crossed that lasts too). I hope the attempted to sanction me with FTA.

Congratulations Agnes on the job! You only have to sign off with the job centre. Do you know that you get housing benefit run on if you get a job? You get your full housing benefit for the first month you're in work. You can also get your first months travel to work paid for and get (vouchers I think) for suitable clothes for work. You can also get clothes for interviews (I've been looking into this as my hubby has been short-listed for a really well paying job for this day and age). Shoes are expensive, tell them you need shoes. Who cares if it doesn't last (but I hope and pray it does)just save some money under the bed!
With regard to the work programme again, I have set up a seperate e-mail for the work programme and I only communicate with my SS advisor through this and any jobs I e-mail using this account. The work programme have to pay your travel to the WP (I hope everyone knows that).
My hubby has an great WP advisor (he's with a different provider to me) she's polite and professional and he's only been in to see her once, he just has to e-mail her once a week and she does actually find him unadvertised jobs with good money. From everyone I've spoken to in person and on the net, she is the only one in Britain!