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A well-run course can usually help a lot of people. Despite ours being a bit shambolic, we tried hard, and a good percentage of our clients found stable employment (there for a year or more) and a fairly high percentage got their literacy and numeracy certificates, which are a requirement for a lot of jobs.
Of the ones who didn't get work, some were players, most were just fundamentally ill-equipped for life, or had huge gaps in their CV from years of not having help and were therefore not the most desirable prospect for employers, or had criminal records, or drug and alcohol problems. I ended up as a de facto social worker and shoulder to cry on for some of them. I'd listen to their stories, which for them seemed very matter of fact, but left me thinking if I was them I'd have thrown myself off a roof by now.
See, most people on in the system get picked up and funnelled through various channes into work or training. Over a period of about five years the unemployment figures fell sharply. The ones who came to us, were the ones who had proved unreachable.
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