Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
in theory, there is now no age limit on apprenticeships, although things like sex and race discrimination laws have been on the books for nearly 50 years and there's some employers haven't quite grasped them yet.
there was something mentioned in the budget a few months back about a scheme specifically aimed at over 50's but this doesn't seem to have got as far as any detail yet, and may only be open to people who are currently on benefits or who have been out of work for x amount of time. but NCS are likely to know more than me.
in that case, probably worth it.
although i have a vague idea there are some rules about going back in to public sector once you've taken VR - i remember there was one bloke at a past workplace who had been at a fairly senior level and came back fairly soon after redundancy, but he couldn't go above a fairly basic admin grade as it would have had negative financial implications (i think it was around redundancy, but he may have been on early retirement pension as well.) i'm really not sure what the current rules are. there have been a few cases of people at chief officer level getting redundancy deals one week and starting at another authority almost the next, and the tories were making noises about 'doing something about it' but not sure they did.
if it comes to it, if in doubt, apply for everything and argue if they say no. you've paid in to the bloody system...
Anyway - reeling a bit but not surprised. Dunno about keeping the £££ if redeployed into a lower grade- haven't heard that before, worth asking about, though 
didn't get the 1 job that the 3 of us were considered for 
