Dáil debates

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Adjournment Debate

FÁS Training Programmes.

9:00 pm

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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The Minister has not yet declared Cork an independent republic, so we are reassured.

I raise this matter to highlight the potential for exploitation within the work placement programme. I call on the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Mary Coughlan, to instigate a review of the programme to ensure this does not take place. I understand that many employers have signed up for this scheme, under which they can employ a full-time worker for free. It does not cost the employer a penny; the Department foots the bill by offering those who secure a place on the programme a weekly payment of approximately €200, which is considerably less than the minimum wage. The aim of the scheme is to allow graduates and other persons to learn a new skill and gain experience, which is important in the current climate. However, many of the job advertisements under the work placement programme specify that the candidate must be experienced and, in some cases, that he or she must be able to work unsupervised. This defeats the purpose of the programme.

There are currently over 800 work placement programme jobs listed in the FÁS jobs bank. Among these positions are sales representatives, receptionists, caretakers, laundry operatives and construction workers. There is a six- to nine-month training period for each of these jobs. The question arises of whether working in a laundry for six to nine months will offer any real progression and thus whether such jobs are of any real value for graduates. This is why I am seeking the review. It is evident to me that the work placement programme could be used as a means of exploiting well-qualified employees by providing work that offers no real opportunity for advancement.

For graduates who have no previous experience of their chosen field and who do not qualify for a social welfare payment, the work placement programme has its merits. For others, this programme offers absolutely no benefit but actually comes at a cost when travelling expenses are deducted from the already meagre payment of €200 per week. The only winner here is the employer, who gets a worker for up to nine months for nothing.

The Minister must revisit this scheme urgently, as FÁS is giving the green light to employ staff for work under the guise of a training scheme for which candidates are grossly overqualified. She should also consider requiring the employer to pay some salary or expenses so the person is at least earning a living wage while working a full week. We argue that they should at least be earning the minimum wage, if that is possible. A testimonial on the scheme was posted on boards.ie: "I think the work placement programme is a good idea but a person would only be earning the €196 (paid by the social welfare) for a full week's work. While I agree that any kind of work looks better on your CV this small amount of money has made the uptake of this programme very slow".

In essence we are seeking to prevent the exploitation of workers. If the scheme is designed so that people can progress and use whatever skills they have to advance in the workplace, even if they are only retaining their social welfare benefits, it should be a real advance and should not be used by employers to advertise jobs that involve no real upskilling. I hope the Tánaiste will at least review this scheme

Photo of Billy KelleherBilly Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Earlier today the CSO published the live register figures for January which unfortunately showed a continued rise in the number of people signing on. However, there has been a marked slow-down in the number of people signing on to the live register compared to this time last year, indicating an improvement in the outlook on the employment front. This is of no comfort to those who have lost their jobs but 33,000 people lost their jobs in January 2009.

Our objective is to ensure that those who are unemployed are given a realistic pathway to employment. This will consist of providing the unemployed with access to quality guidance services and the opportunity to acquire new skills and experience which will assist them in securing employment in the future.

Over successive budgets, the Government has considerably expanded the education, training and work experience provision for the unemployed. This year the Department will provide approximately 147,000 training places, compared to the 66,000 that were delivered in 2008. The additional provision has been achieved through a combination of increased resources, providing a broad range of training and introducing new labour market activation initiatives such as the work placement programme.

The work placement programme is a joint initiative between the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Department of Social and Family Affairs and was launched last May. The aim of the programme is to provide valuable work experience for up to nine months to individuals who are unemployed. It is relevant for young people seeking to gain valuable experience in the workplace and for others seeking either to stay active or to gain work experience in a new skills area or sector.

There are potentially 2,000 places on the programme. At present there is a total of 1,300 places offered by providers on the scheme and over 300 of these have been filled. While each placement is unpaid, participants who are in receipt of social welfare payments could retain these while on the programme, subject to the normal social welfare rules applying.

The programme was reviewed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in November, in conjunction with FÁS and other Departments, with revised criteria coming into operation from 1 December. The revised criteria considerably broaden the accessibility for participants and providers to the programme. The key changes relating to the programmes criteria include that recipients of most social welfare payments, including job seekers allowance and job seekers benefit, are now eligible to apply; the period for which participants must be in receipt of a social welfare payment to be eligible has been reduced from six months to three months; the programme is open to all sectors of the economy including the private, public and now the community and voluntary sectors; and the requirement for a firm to have at least ten employees has been removed.

Previously firms could only participate if they did not have redundancies in the previous six months; this constraint has been reduced to three months. If, however, the level of redundancies in the last three months was less than 5% of the workforce, these firms will be eligible to participate. The duration of the work placement has also been increased to a maximum of nine months.

The design of the work placement programme contains a mechanism to ensure that participants on the programme have an opportunity to acquire new skills and crucially gain valuable work experience. That is critical, that people can gain valuable work experience in a period of unemployment and fill up their CVs. This is critically important to show a person has been on a placement and has gained experience, something that increases opportunities in the context of applying for jobs in general.

Within the first two months of the commencement of a placement the provider receives a formal monitoring visit from FÁS. The visit is conducted to ensure the placement is taking place as described in the work placement description. The monitor then completes a report, which could contain one of the following recommendations: that the placement continue; that the placement continue with a follow up monitoring visit scheduled; that the placement end; or that the provider should not be approved for future placements.

In addition to the formal application process and formal monitoring of the placement and the provider, at all times any staff member, participant or member of the public can raise issues or make known their concerns about a placement or a provider by contacting any FÁS office. FÁS will in all instances follow up on any complaints made about abuse of participants or of the spirit of the programme.

The Department continues to oversee the operation of the work placement programme and will if necessary conduct a further review to ensure that participants obtain maximum benefit from the programme. In the interim we will continue through FÁS to actively promote the programme across all sectors of the economy.

This is a valuable programme that offers opportunities. If there are any forms of abuse the Deputy can raise them with FÁS or personally with me, any other Minister of State or the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and we will follow up on them.