CDG (aka Careers Development Group) are under contract to DWP to provide New Deal training courses for the unemployed. Attendance is compulsory, the unemployed have no choice. If they refuse to attend they will be sanctioned and face loss of benefits.

I am one of those who have been forced by my local Job Centre to serve a 13 week sentence at CDG.

At first I was pretty appalled, then towards the end of my sentence, I was offered something that made me think, maybe they are not so bad. I even wrote an article on Indymedia UK to that effect.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/390471.html?c=on

Now, having had more experience of CDG, I realise I was wrong, very wrong, to praise them, and I am more than happy to eat my words and say I was wrong.

CDG are nothing but a scam and a bunch of liars. They are defrauding the taxpayer and the sooner their contract is terminated the better it will be for both taxpayer and the unemployed who are forced to attend these courses.

Should you dare to criticise CDG whilst still there, they will fabricate false allegations to throw you off the course, if necessary forcibly eject you from their premises, then tell the Job Centre a pack of lies to have benefits stopped.

CDG have been running a smear campaign against Keith Parkins because he has stood up and told the truth, because he spoke out against the bullying, because he intervened on behalf of clients and tried to stop the bullying.

As you may have seen there have been a number of articles that have been written about CDG on this very site Indymedia UK with which I agree on, with the one exception of my first article, with which I don't agree now.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/11/386689.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/388044.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/388504.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/390153.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/390471.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/390638.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/390901.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/391396.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/391397.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/391531.html
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/394933.html

But what's with the change of heart you may be asking yourself, well this article will explain everything to you about the reasons why I had a change of heart and now loathe CDG and wish to see them closed down.

It has been a few weeks since I have completed my thirteen week course at CDG Basingstoke I feel that some things needed to be mentioned about what is going on at the centre. In doing so, I will expose yet another of their scams, forcing people onto training courses to look as though they are doing something. More opportunities for kickbacks, yet more costs to the taxpayer.

One of the two things that I should mention is that the staff at CDG Basingstoke including the elo (external liaison officer, responsible for job placements) despite what they have been saying about staff morale being high and job outcomes every few minutes are getting other companies to do their dirty work for them by forcing clients to do other courses with fear of sanctioning of some sort if clients refuse. One of the these companies that CDG have approached is Angels HR.

 http://www.angelhr.org/

This company does a five day training course on how to be a care worker what CDG say to the clients that go on this course is that the course is in five modules and are all on DVD plus clients cannot fail the course in the event that a client fails the course, clients redo the module or modules that they failed on.

The second of the two things that I should mention is the fact that the elo at CDG tried to force another client, whose name I will not mention, to act as a snitch and and spy on their behalf, to phone me twice in the same day to find out what was going on, and were not even going to pay for the phone call and he had not even entered his front door.

The client they asked to do their dirty work had himself been forced to attend a course with threat of sanctions if he refused.

I believe that this is an invasion of people's privacy and a breach of human rights as they were trying to find out what was going on with myself at the time before where the elo tried to force myself onto this course which was starting the following week when they were fully aware that it was my final week at the centre and would have to do a reclaim the week that Angels HR were going to repeat this course again due to staff sickness.

However when I arrived at Angels HR branch in Aldershot on the 25 February 2008 to start the course it had been cancelled what the manager said was that it was because they were not going to spend a week's worth of the course on one person the manager said also that CDG were informed of this turn of events beforehand and had booked me for the same course the week before.

When I contacted the manager of CDG Basingstoke on the same day of this turn of events and told her what had happened she said that Angels failed to make contact with the centre at any time prior to this courses start and admitted that they did not book anyone from CDG for the course the week before to further add insult to injury the manager of CDG then said "What has this got to do with us".

This was infuriating as it said that CDG had admitted this had happened and had just turned around and said that since it had backfired they didn't want anything to do with putting clients on this particular course. It also said that the manager was trying to cover the evidence up that places them in the involvement in the first place and were possibly aware of this event beforehand and failed to make contact with myself.

Furthermore when the Jobcentre was informed about these events with Angels HR they said that CDG need to improve their communications with companies they approach so events such as this would not happen at all because they are putting clients on these courses while they are on their thirteen week course at the centre in Basingstoke and CDG should also be responsible for the event happening in the first place.

What has happened is a clear breach of the guidelines issued by DWP for provision providers.

 http://www.dwp.gov.uk/supplyingdwp/what_we_buy/provider_guidance.asp

There was no prior discussion with me to discover whether the course was of any use to me or even if it was what I wanted to do. I was forced to attend.

What I describe here in my last week, is only the tip of the iceberg of what is going wrong at CDG. I fully agree with all the previous critical comments on Indymedia UK (and elsewhere such as SchNEWS). I only regret writing on Indymedia UK in support of CDG, which gives a false impression of CDG.

Bullying at CDG is rife. All the time they are threatening clients with sanctions (i.e. stop benefits), making clients afraid to speak out.

Whilst I was at CDG, no attempt was made to place me with a company where I would have a realistic chance of meaningful employment.

Overall I think that the government should be checking these training companies out first rather than pouring money into them and saying that they will stop Jobseeker's Benefits if they don't do these training courses so in that way these sorts of companies should not exist at all.

Why is there no monitoring by government, DWP, local Job Centres? Many clients have complained to their local Job Centres, and yet the same Job Centres are still sending Jobseekers to CDG, with loss of benefits if they refuse to attend.

CDG and similar training companies should be shut down, their contracts with DWP terminated. If, like CDG, they are a registered charity, their charitable status should be withdrawn.