Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

A personal progression plan is, as its name suggests, a document setting out the actions a jobseeker should take to enhance his or her prospects of finding employment. The plan is agreed between the jobseeker and an Intreo case officer as part of the activation service offered in Intreo centres. Similar plans are developed and agreed between jobseekers and local employment service providers or JobPath providers in cases where jobseekers are referred to those services.

A plan will typically include details on the jobseeker's employment experience and educational qualifications, work skills, employment preferences and any identified barriers to employment, such as literacy or numeracy difficulties. The plan will also include any actions agreed between the case officer and the jobseeker and these are, in most cases, divided into two types. First are those that are developmental in nature, such as undertaking a training course. Second are those that are employment-related, such employing for a specific job, considering a community employment or Tús placement, or uploading a CV onto a jobs website. In most cases, the personal progression plan is agreed at the first meeting between a case officer and the unemployed person and forms the basis for discussion at any follow-up meetings. Depending on progress against the agreed actions or any changes in the jobseeker's circumstances, the plan may be revised at any of those meetings. In other words, it is a living document that is updated as required.

The benefit of developing a structured personal progression plan is that it focuses the discussion between the case officer and the jobseeker on actions that are appropriate to the jobseeker's circumstances. In doing so, it helps jobseekers to identify the options and actions that are available and most appropriate to them. It also sets a timeframe within which those options and actions should be exercised and, importantly, engages the public employment service , which is Intreo, in helping the jobseeker to take advantage of those options.

See this speech in context