worktrain.gov.uk/

Overview:
I've been using Worktrain for two years now - I found my present job with its assistance and am now looking for a new one. It's the service I check most often and is the easiest to use and best laid out job search site out of others available (such as s1jobs.com, scottishappointments.com and search.co.uk).

Content:
Worktrain is a government site which provides UK-wide access to all jobs advertised in Job Centres. It is updated several times a day with new vacancies. This is excellent as it means you get everything from larger organisations to the flower shop down the road advertising. Another big advantage is that if you are moving to a new part of the country, you can immediately view what jobs are available there.

To apply for a job, you usually have to call Jobseeker Direct (The number is quoted in the job descriptions). This is a local call number, and the staff are very helpful. All you need to hand is your National Insurance Number and the Job Reference. They will arrange to send you an application form for the job, or will give you the correct contact details to request one direct from the employer, or to forward a CV.

Worktrain doesn't just cover jobs. It is also an excellent resource on Occupations information. It lists careers in industry sectors and explains what they entail and what qualifications you are likely to need to get a job in that area.

There are also areas covering training, which lets you search for courses in your chosen subject area by qualification, learning method and distance from your postcode, and voluntary work, which lets you enter your postcode and find volunteer work within your area.

If you have problems finding a job, advice on career choice is also available, as is information on childcare for those who require it.

Quality of Site:
The site is well laid out with many helpful signposts to help those new to it. The categorisation may irritate those who know exactly what they are looking for, but there is a job title search to help with that.

The site itself is generally very fast to load and conduct searches. You very rarely find the need to wait long periods for pages to come up. The databases do go down for maintenance at odd times without any notice - you only find out when you do a search and it comes up with a 'Cannot access the job data at this time' error.

Irks:
One thing I personally find irritating is the fact that you can only search in one category at a time - instead of keyword searches where you can put things relevant to different career areas, you have to treat each as a separate search.

Another irritating thing is that you are limited to searching under a maximum of six job titles at a time. I mostly search in the ICT category where there are eight jobs listed so I have to do two separate searches to cover them all.

Conclusion:
Having been hugely impressed with the general quality of the service, I have recommended it to many friends and acquaintances as one of the first places to go when looking for a job or any of the other services described above.

It's biggest advantage over all other such services is the ability to search /every/ job centre job available in the whole country, and the next is the variety of the information pooled into one place - where else could you get the sheer breadth of information offered here?