If you though UJM was bad .....

A question about : If you though UJM was bad .....

Just been reading about the potential replacement for UJM. The site, called Avantajobs. Unlike Universal Job Match, Advantajobs has no option to opt-out of allowing your adviser to see what you have been up to. The site also requires your adviser to sign you up in the Job Centre.

The mere fact that there is no opt-out option means that there is a high chance that the site may actually be in breach of EU regulations that make opt-outs a legally-required part of any site for which a sign-up is required.

There also appears to be no way for employers to actually sign-up and post without being added to the system by JC staff, so that would prevent multi-posting of the same job by several affiliate sites all looking to get the click-through payment.

Best answers:

• Oh great, however I clicked on that site but no results found, I really don't want Job Centre advisor to access to my account
  Has this been confirmed or is it rumors?
• I thought Job Centre advisors could already access your UJM account without you knowing about it. It's all in the small print you sign up to when you first make your claim for JSA.
  So are JC advisors going to be monitoring you to make sure you're using it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week? If so that's going to be a nightmare for people like me who only apply for the mandatory one job a day on UJM, and do all their other job searches on other more useful websites. Even my work programme advisor has told me that UJM isn't much use if you want to do a really meaningful job search.
  Has anyone else had similar experiences?
  And if only JC staff can sign you up to it, does this mean that only JSA claimants can get a username and password for it? If so that sounds very unfair towards the thousands of people who are unemployed but who don't claim JSA for one reason or another. Whilst these people may not qualify for financial help, I thought the government wouldn't want to go out their way to make it more difficult for people to look for work.
• The link in the first post doesn't work - there's no website with the name advantajobs.com. I've just done a quick search and found one called avantajobs.com - is this what the OP means?
  On the website I found are the following Terms & Conditions:
  1. REGISTRATION PROCESS AND SECURITY
  1.1 You acknowledge that you have provided us with accurate and complete information to enable your registration on Avanta Jobs by your Job Coach/Advisor and that it is your responsibility to update us with any changes to that information by logging into the system and making the necessary amendments.
  1.2 On registration, you will be allocated a user name and password ("ID"). You are responsible for all use of the Services using your ID and for preventing unauthorised use of your ID.
  1.3 You agree that your Job Coach/Advisor has the ability to view the applications submitted through Avanta Jobs for the purpose of supporting you through the application process and assisting you in your job search.
  1.4 You acknowledge you have read the Use of Cookies section before you use the website and agree that the website may use Cookies to help Avanta deliver a better service to you and you.
  I assume they work with the JobCentre to help people find work - presumably they are a Work Programme partner or something similar? This appears to be their main website: https://avanta.uk.com/
• Yes, looks like they are just another Ingeus or A4E.
• So it's not Job Centre then who will need access?
• if you are looking for work why would you not want them to view this, wouldn't getting all the help you can to get back to work be a bonus, rather than refuse (because of cookies) to use a website.
  sorry it comes across as i don't want to use because i don't want adviser to see, (why - its proof you are job hunting)
• It is not always a case you do want to use it but it is one of many sites you could use. when I was signing on the type of work I.e. Teaching positions don't get advertised on it.
• I have found sites like Indeed & reed to be good places to look for work, but I agree with Mupette, why would you not want the JCP to see your jobseeking activity, surely the proof is there if you only use other sites & input it into the history yourself
  If I was an adviser then I would be very suspicious of a claimant that did not allow me access to there account, as I would think that if access is not allowed then something might be being hidden
• https://falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/a-li...ve-experienced
• some of those reason seem far fetched at the least, a little communication would have avoided most of them, also some are justified
• https://www.theguardian.com/society/p...nts-says-union
  https://intensiveactivity.wordpress....his-wednesday/
• Not all staff enforce this action though
• I think the main problem is that the DWP still think that UKM is the best thing since sliced bread and they expect people to use it for the majority of the job hunting.
  They only people who do that are scroungers who only want to do the minimum amount of job searching required to keep their JSA (and some of them don't even manage that).
  The thing with UJM is that you're applying for jobs that literally thousands of other people are going for, and unless you've got an exceptional CV, you don't stand a chance.
  I've been to workshops run by my work programme provider into the hidden job market and how UJM is essentially a waste of space if you're serious about looking for a job.
• And the other big problem with UJM is that the amount of information given for some jobs is so limited that in some cases you struggle to make an informed decision as to whether to apply for it or not.
  And I hate having to write 'Company Confidential' in the name of employer column on my record of job applications form. It makes me feel like I haven't done it properly, when really there's no alternative.