Written answers
Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Department of Social Protection
Youth Guarantee
Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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41. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of training or education places that have been set aside this year for young persons who are out of work as part of the Youth Guarantee; the current number of young persons who qualify for the Youth Guarantee scheme at this time; the ratio of her Department case officers to the number of unemployed persons currently; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17735/14]
Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The objective of the Irish implementation plan for the Youth Guarantee is to ensure that young people receive a quality offer of assistance within four months of becoming unemployed. This objective is to be achieved over time by enhancing the Intreo engagement with newly unemployed young people, and by maintaining and developing the current range of education, training and employment interventions for young people. It will also be supported by the recovery in the economy, which has seen employment grow by 61,000 over the last year, and youth unemployment fall from a peak of over 80,000 in early 2009 to an estimated 54,000 at present (Eurostat estimate for February 2014, seasonally adjusted) Based on current planned provision, the estimated uptake of programme places by young people in 2014 is set out in detail in the table below.
| # | # | # | Expected participation, activation programmes, 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Programme | Average participation | Inflow of new participants | Expected inflow of young people |
| Youthreach/CTC | 6,000 | 3,300 | 3,300 |
| JobBridge (including planned reserve) | 7,700 | 13,300 | 5,000 |
| Tus | 7,500 | 7,500 | 1,000 |
| JobsPlus | 4,000 | 2,000 | 1,500 |
| Momentum | 6,500 | 6,500 | 2,000 |
| BTEA (excl Momentum) | 18,500 | 9,300 | 3,300 |
| BTWEA | 11,000 | 5,500 | 200 |
| VTOS | 5,600 | 2,800 | 500 |
| FAS/Solas | 10,300 | 25,000 | 9,500 |
| CEB youth Entrepreneurship Training and Mentoring supports | # | 700 | 700 |
| CEB/MFI micro-loans for young people | # | 150 | 150 |
| International Work Experience and Training | 250 | 250 | 250 |
| Gateway | 3,000 | 3,000 | 450 |
| Community Employment | 25,300 | 12,700 | 500 |
| Total | 105,650 | 92,000 | 28,350 |
| PLCs Apprenticeship | 35,000 8,000 | 32,000 2,500 | 22,000 2,000 |
| Vocational Third Level | # | # | It is estimated that at least 50% of the 41,000 entrants to third level each year are entering courses leading towards defined occupations |
While the resources under the Youth Guarantee are targeted more towards those with the highest risk of becoming long-term unemployed, all young people signing on enter the engagement process (via Group Engagement sessions) within the first two weeks of signing on. Effectively, therefore, all persons under the age of 25 who become unemployed and join the Live Register represent the target group at whom policies developed under the Guarantee are aimed.
Given the range of programmes and approaches envisaged under the implementation plan, it is not possible, at any given time, to identify a specific group of young people as being qualified for the guarantee. However, the published implementation plan notes that in 2012 some 56,000 young people joined the Live Register as wholly unemployed, and some 35,000 (63%) of these remained unemployed for four months or more. The target of the guarantee approach will be to lead to a significant reduction in this number over time. The number of staff deployed on front-line case work duties was doubled in the last quarter of 2013 from approximately 300 to about 600. This allocation of staff is being facilitated by significant process and organisational changes within the Department of Social Protection, and is leading to an increase in the caseworker/client ratio from about 1:800 to about 1:400. The introduction of JobPath, commencing later in 2014, will further improve this ratio to 1:200.
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