Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 208: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the specific training services geared specifically to the needs of lone parents seeking work. [21261/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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All lone parents who present to FÁS Employment Services are provided with a one-to-one guidance interview with an Employment Services Officer. As part of this process, lone parents are advised on suitable labour market opportunities, such as current job vacancies, training/employment programme places, or may also be referred to other FÁS supports.

The Social Inclusion Model, which is a new support model to help people overcome barriers and increase their opportunity to access training and employment programmes and ultimately the open labour market is currently being tested by FÁS with lone parents.

This Model is an inter-agency approach (involving FÁS, Department of Social Protection, Irish Vocational Educational Association and Lone Parent organisations) that includes outreach information and recruitment and basic IT training.

Also included in the model is a part-time "Paving Your Way to Work" programme concerned with the provision of information supports regarding welfare to work, budgeting, personal coaching and training, education and work options aimed at individuals who are parenting alone who want to get a job or improve their job prospects and who need to access a wide range of information and/or learn new skills through training and/or to return to education in order to achieve this.