Quitting work. Stuggling to cope. Problems?

[Morningside]

Small background. I looked after my wife for 20 years who sadly died in February and therefore I needed to find a job to sustain myself.
I was kindly took on by a company but it has become very clear that technology has moved on and I have not.

I have only been working for them for 5 weeks and it has been an impossible struggle and not getting any easier as I have found that I am finding modern computer systems well beyond what I can do. I have had some training and they have been very good being left out the wild I struggle like hell.

With them being a small company it is always 'all hands on pump' and I just feel like the old man.

I have been given a 6 month probation period but it is very clear in my mind that I will not make it to that point and rather than waste more of their time on me and it seems a good point to leave now. Written in my contract is a clause for both sides to give a weeks notice.

Just to make it clear I am not normally a quitter but it really does seem like a vertical struggle.

What happens with the job centre? Will I not be able to claim? Will I be sanctioned? Or is it best for them to sack me?

[Morningside]

Oh, I thought it was different in the eyes of the job centre if you are sacked.

I am going to speak with him this afternoon. But I will be struggling for weeks and not that I have screwed anything but I don't think that will put the company in a good light.

Turning up at a customer and just going ummmmm does not help.

[Morningside]

Don't worry I won't be sitting on my arse twiddling my thumbs. It is just that from leaving school 30+ years ago computers and always within the computer industry were the only thing I knew...or so I thought. But after a 20 year break even keeping up online etc. it really does not prepare you for the real world.
I was self employed about 5-6 years back but had to give up due to my wifes illness.

It is mainly server stuff as in Server 2012. I have zero knowledge of this or how they are built up or implemented. I roughly understand how it all screws together but that is a far as it goes. Way too daunting and on a live system it is a massive no no to 'dabble'. It is something that requires years of knowledge and I just don't have it. Repairing of laptops/PCs and hardware is no problem.

I could learn over a period of time but that would not help them as that is not what they need.

[Morningside]

Thanks. I think you maybe right. 20 ish years out of the workforce has been hard although I was self-employed for a short while. The people I work with are great and they have accepted me 100% and been very, very helpful but it's the work itself I struggle with. I do have some old PCs here and could setup a small network to experiment with but sometimes these things takes years and years of learned skills.

The hardware side I have no problem with.

[Morningside]

It really is a total shock to the system and I never expected to be left at my age. It's a whole new world that I am finding a bit daunting as well as struggling to find my way about server stuff.

I have a HP DL 360 server that I only purchased on a whim due to it costing next to nothing and lots of networking bits that I have accumulated over the years.

I have been experimenting using VMWare player and using 2012 server demo in a virtual world and connecting to it like that but there is so much I cannot seem to grasp.

Is there a free online course that anyone can recommend?

[Morningside]

Thanks all for your comments. I am finding things a bit easier as time goes on.

I will also have a good look at that trial as well.