It's time to take stock of my situation. My two years are nearly up on the Work Programme with no extra qualifications to give me a better chance of finding employment. At least with the early New Deals I was able to acquire NVQ1 and NVQ2 in Information Technology. To be honest they really are very basic levels of computer knowledge. I was also able to complete the ECDL course which again in reality is very basic but they were all completed on New Deal. On the Work Programme I have completed a two week course based around application forms, cover letters and interview skills and they were covered many times in the past on New Deal by spending 13 weeks around a table if you were not on a course or on a work placement. I guess the participants on the Work Programme in general gain absolutely no extra skills during the two years of the course but if you can endure it without any controversy then it won't cause you any problems unless they start trying to bully you into some form of work experience that is more of free labour rather than actual beneficial work experience. After all, if you are shown how to stack a shelf properly in a store you shouldn't need six months at 30 hours a week to gain enough experience to stack a shelf to the required standard. If you do then you are probably not able to tie up your own shoe laces and should be looked after in a padded cell for your own protection.