Mr. Colin Donnery:

On behalf of Turas Nua, I thank the joint committee for giving me the opportunity to address it and provide further details of our organisation, as well as our services. I am joined by Ms Mary Moss who is our head of operations. She has been working with Turas Nua for over two years and has extensive experience of running large customer-focused organisations. I am a director of the company and have over 20 years of experience in the recruitment, training and employability sectors. I am also a board member of Macra na Feirme and a former president of the National Recruitment Federation of Ireland.

Since Turas Nua began its operations in 2015, our entire focus has been on helping people to find work, to prepare for the difficulties presented by the jobs market, to increase their knowledge, to improve their skills and find jobs they can sustain, thereby giving them and their families greater financial security and stability. The official vision of Turas Nua is "Together we help people on their journey into work and beyond, fulfilling the aspirations not only of those we help but also of their communities and wider society". That assistance is delivered through a comprehensive service provided at 40 community-based offices across the south of the country. We provide a local reach, while maintaining high national quality standards. Our service focuses on the needs of the persons with whom we work. They are at the centre of everything we do. Every person is different and requires a service that is built around his or her needs.

I would like to tell the committee about a typical customer journey. Brian who is from Mallow, County Cork is 45 years old. He has been unemployed for just over four years. His background is in the construction industry, but he has not been in sustained employment since the recession hit. He has been offered short-term jobs in different parts of the country, which would mean he would have to travel away from his young family. He has experienced regular periods of sustained illness in recent years. He wanted a long-term job, but when he was looking for employment in other sectors, he was simply getting nowhere.

He received a Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection notice inviting him to attend an information session to explain how the JobPath service would work for him. This letter as followed up by a call from one of our contact centre agents to offer Brian an opportunity to have any queries about the service answered and to confirm his attendance.

At the information session, representative of the Department and a member of Turas Nua outlined the purpose of JobPath, giving Brian details about the service and the guidance available. Immediately after that session he was introduced to his personal adviser. Brian told his adviser about his employment history and his career goals. In turn, the personal adviser told him about the information and support he could expect to receive. He was also told about the travel expenses we provide to cover public transport costs in attending required meetings at Turas Nua. Brian then discussed his desired job goals, which were in general construction or plastering. He also mentioned that he had worked in a shop as a teenager, and might be willing to consider a retail role. He wanted to avoid travelling too far from home or being away from his family overnight. We then took Brian through our unique diagnostic tool, catalyst. Catalyst measures a person's perception of their circumstances, and is a special offering provided by Turas Nua. It captures both objective and subjective information and identifies barriers and potential solutions, while measuring the personal distance travelled over time.

Brian's full assessment helped build a holistic view of his situation, including information on his qualifications, work experience, existing skills and barriers to employment, as well as his ambitions. His personal progression plan was then updated to include his goals and the agreed actions required to help him on his journey towards sustainable employment. Additional appointments were arranged and the plan was then printed and signed by both Brian and his adviser to illustrate their mutual commitment. Brian was given a copy to take home. Over the following weeks, Brian worked with his adviser to create a professional-quality CV. The catalyst analysis had highlighted Brian's poor motivation levels. A weakness in his basic IT skills had reduced his confidence, while his illness had impacted on his ability to hold down a strenuous job. Initially, Brian's focus was on construction work. Often, Turas Nua helps candidates in this area to update their skills and qualifications, for example by providing a safe pass certificate. During his meetings with this adviser however, it became clear that Brian had other barriers to address before being ready to take up a physically demanding role. Brian's personal progression plan was amended to incorporate his participation in some employability training through our workit training suite. This involved a number of courses addressing Brian's motivation and helping him to learn about identifying and unitising transferable skills. He was among the 48,000 participants in a workit training course last year. In fact, there are 38 short courses on offer from Turas Nua-qualified tutors.

Over time, Brian realised that construction was no longer his primary goal, so other options were discussed with his adviser. As Brian's needs evolved, we adapted our service and helped him to amend his individual personal progression plan to take new career goals into account. He then attended our offices twice a week to complete a basic IT skills course. After 13 weeks Brian undertook a full review of his plan. The second catalyst assessment highlighted the great strides he had made and his growth since his first appointment. A meeting was arranged with a local Turas Nua employer services consultant to discuss some employment opportunities in Brian's area. The consultant informed Brian about the relationship that had been developed with a local hardware shop which was looking for in-store sales agents. That store is just one of the 14,000 businesses that Turas Nua works with, ranging from large companies to small, independent local businesses. This role immediately appealed to Brian. He was invited to attend retail training in our Cork office to learn some of the key skills. When this was complete, our consultant arranged for some mock interview preparation, another core part of our service. Brian was then encouraged to update his CV to bring his retail experience and transferable skills, such as customer service, to the fore before the formal application was submitted.

The owner of the hardware shop was immediately interested in Brian's application and lined up an interview, with a meeting taking place in our Mallow office as his shop floor did not have any suitable space. All our offices regularly accommodate employers who are undertaking job interviews with candidates. Brian impressed the owner with his enthusiasm, his knowledge of the construction industry and his practical DIY know-how. He was offered an initial three-month contract pending his obtaining a manual handling certificate. This training was arranged by Turas Nua, and we also advised the store owner on how to apply for the JobsPlus grant. Brian started his new job and his personal adviser maintained regular contact. It soon became clear that Brian was progressing well in his new role, and we were delighted to learn through our in-work support service that after the initial three months the store owner had offered Brian a permanent role. Brian's progress has not stopped there. He recently began some advanced training, learning about stock-keeping and basic book-keeping.

Brian's story is just one example of how Turas Nua works with thousands of people every day.

It is evident how much our support means to people. We receive dozens of "thank you" cards every week. We are delighted that 34% of the people who have the completed JobPath programme with Turas Nua have attained a job. To date, some 70% of the people who progress beyond 13 weeks maintain employment for a full year. We have placed almost 19,000 people in jobs across a range of sectors and industries. We are pleased to note independent research that indicates that 82% of the people with whom we worked in 2017 were satisfied with our service. Proactive engagement with the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, other stakeholders and our regular customer listening groups backs up the high levels of satisfaction. Our success is due to the hard work, dedication and professionalism of the 330 people who work for Turas Nua in 40 offices in 13 counties. We have diverse teams that are doing outstanding work with people from all strands of society who are seeking our help to move into work. Our employees receive significant in-house training when they join our team, gaining skills and extensive expertise. Further growth is delivered through continuous professional development training. A total of 14% of our workforce were hired from the live register.

A key strength of Turas Nua is localised delivery via our 40 offices. We have provided in the written submission to the committee county by county details of the work we undertake. It is worth noting the spread and scale of our service provision. For example, in County Cork we employ 64 people who are working with over 4,000 customers and almost 2,400 employers. These staff are based in ten offices across the county. In County Limerick in which we employ 30 staff we have offices in the city and Newcastle West. The headquarters is located in Roscrea, County Tipperary, in which we employ 69 people in five offices. We have extensive operations across the south east, in counties Kildare and Wicklow, as well as across the south midlands. As I said, we employ 330 staff in 40 offices nationally. We are working with over 23,000 unemployed persons and have developed relationships with over 14,000 employers.

In recent years we have welcomed many public representatives to our offices to witness our facilities and services for themselves. We would be delighted to arrange visits for members of the committee and other Deputies, Senators and local public representatives. We would welcome the opportunity to show public representatives the excellent work being done in their localities.

All aspects of our work revolve around people. They include the tens of thousands we have helped to upskill and find jobs; the hundreds we have employed; the thousands of employers and business owners we have helped to fill roles; and the countless families and communities who have benefited from the services we provide. This experience has shown us just how important JobPath is. Its impact is being felt at the most local level possible in reaching individuals, their families, employers and communities. We consider it to be a substantial achievement to have established our comprehensive service within such a short timeframe and that process has involved no upfront cost to the taxpayer. Our high quality service offers great economic value, while making a real difference. We look forward to continuing to deliver the JobPath programme across 13 counties and help over 1,000 people per month to find jobs.

We thank the committee for giving us the opportunity to make our presentation.