working in the city ( London )

[nurse1967]

My daughter has recently left school and failed miserably in her exams. The only subject which she really enjoyed was IT and managed to achieve her ECDL parts 1-8. She also went to college as part of her schooling and achieved DIDA ( have no idea what that is though ). She really wants to work in London, maybe in Admin/IT. She knows and is prepared to start at the bottom but we are unsure whether the lack of qualifications will hinder her. We are unsure as the best way to proceed. Any advice please

[Buenchico]

DiDA is the Diploma in Digital Applications. If your daughter has achieved the full diploma, rather than just the award (AiDA) or certificate (CiDA) level, it's equivalent to 4 GCSEs. Further information is here:
http://dida.edexcel.org.uk/home/aboutdida/

However, even though her qualification might be equivalent to 4 GCSEs, it's not equivalent to any specific subjects. Rightly or wrongly, I very much doubt that many City employers will want to offer her a position without GCSE Maths and English (at A to C level). It might be necessary for your daughter to return to college to attain these qualifications. At the same time, she could study additional options such as Business Studies and/or Keyboard Proficiency.

I'm sorry if that sounds rather negative but there's a lot of competition for jobs in the City (in all sectors). When employers look through an apllicant's qualifications, the first imaginary boxes they want to tick in their minds are usually the ones for Maths and English.

Chris

[WoWo]

While I do agree with Buenchico on the Maths and English don't give up hope.

I left school with pretty dismal qualifications (I did however have English and Maths as grade C) but I work in IT as a very senior developer who is recognised as a leader in a certain field of IT (I have written many articles and been published).

However, and Buenchico touches on this, you need to make a distinction between working in London and the City, in this context the city generally means financial institutions. The "city" only tend to employ the best candidates (degrees are a minimum) so that might be out, at least until your daughter has built up a large body of experience. But if she just wants to work in IT in London (even the center) then there are plenty of places she could work.

The best advice is to go to your local library and find the Computing Mi IT Users Directory (Computer Users Year Book). This contains contact details for the IT departments for all the major computer users in the UK, use this to write letters to the IT managers basically begging for an opportunity*

My route into IT was via an Advanced GNVQ in IT, the qualification itself was of little benefit but it did allow me to build up contacts in the IT industry including a 6 weeks work placement, I think with the odd exception everybody on the course found permanent work with their work placement after the course.

[WoWo]

* the BBC had a program called "Trust Me I'm an Economist" it had some good advice on changing careers but the points made are equally relevant to somebody like your daughter.

If you are able to support your daughter she could offer to work for expenses only (Travel, food etc). By employing your daughter a company will have to take a risk, what she needs to do is minimise that risk for them while allowing herself to get the opportunities, she could agree to do this for say 6 weeks after which the company can decide if they think she is worth keeping on, often the hardest part of getting a job is simply getting in the door, if you can get past that you have the chance to shine.

[WoWo]

Forgot to say good luck....