Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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109. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to set out the extent to which he expects job creation over the next three years to focus on the job requirements of youth unemployment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6556/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s Action Plan for Jobs, which is co-ordinated and developed by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation since 2012, has set out a comprehensive set of measures to address the unemployment challenge for all age cohorts. The 2015 Action Plan for Jobs was launched on January 29th. Almost 80,000 more people are at work since the launch of the first Action Plan for Jobs in 2012. The CSO data for January 2015 indicates that the number of persons aged 25 on the Live Register and under has fallen to 13.7% from 15.1% in January 2014, a reduction of 11,248 over the year. The rate of unemployment has declined from a peak of 15.1 per cent at the start of 2012 to below 10.5 per cent in January 2015.

The Government’s primary strategy to tackle youth unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth and the availability of productive employment for young people.

The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) plays a key role in advising on future enterprise skills needs and that education and training provision is providing our young people with the skills required to take up available employment opportunities. Officials from the Department of Education and Skills and my Department, the HEA and further and higher education and training providers participate in the EGFSN along with industry representatives and the enterprise development agencies. Recent EGFSN reports have anticipated future job opportunities arising from both expansion and replacement demand for a range of occupational roles including in ICT, data analytics, manufacturing, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, international sales and marketing, project management, freight transport, distribution and logistics – including warehousing and growth in the hospitality sector.

While it is the Pathways to Work strategy that focuses on specific measures to improve employment opportunities for young persons, the steps taken to date under previous Action Plans, and those set out for this year, complement that work and directly assist young job seekers. The Action Plan for Jobs commits to implementing the 70 actions in Pathways to Work 2015. These include beginning the new account management approach to employers, roll-out JobPath, continuing to roll-out the Youth Guarantee initiatives, and introduce a Back to Work Family Dividend. In addition, as part of Pathways to Work, a new JobsPlus strand for young people will be available in 2015 under the Youth Guarantee.

The Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan was published in January 2014. The Youth Developmental Internship, First Steps, is an additional measure to provide youth with valuable work. This will offer young jobseekers aged between 18 and 25 the opportunity to gain valuable work experience and training with the help of dedicated assistance from department of Social Protection case officers. The target is to provide up to 1,500 work experience placements of six to nine months duration for young job seekers during 2015. Earlier and more intensive engagement by INTREO with the young unemployed will also be introduced. Models for the engagement of young people through Intreo have been agreed and will form the basis of the national roll-out of the Youth Guarantee in 2015.

There will be a continuing focus on improvement in skills provision through the provision of programmes for a diverse range of individuals including young unemployed people through the Education and Training Boards in the implementation of the Further Education Strategy 2014-2018, the Momentum programmes, the recent launch of the fifth iteration of Springboard, offering short higher education courses for jobseekers with previous work experience, employment incentive schemes such as JobsPlus and doubling of high-end skills as part of the second ICT Skills Action Plan. The launch of the call for new apprenticeships should provide further opportunities for young people to find rewarding careers for the future.

In the areas of entrepreneurship, the launch of the Local Enterprise Offices provides a first-stop-shop for young entrepreneurs with an idea or interested in starting a business and we will build on the success of “Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur” competition which was launched in 2014.