Written answers

Tuesday, 25 May 2021

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection

Employment Support Services

Photo of Jackie CahillJackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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386. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when the work placement and experience programme announced as part of the July jobs stimulus is due to commence; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27829/21]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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In the July Jobs Stimulus the Government committed to a €200m investment in training, education, skill development, work placement schemes, recruitment subsidies and jobs search and assistance measures aimed to help those who have lost their jobs find a new one, retrain or develop new skills, in particular for emerging growth sectors. Included in this is provision for a funded work placement scheme to provide work experience for jobseekers who have been unemployed for more than six months, including time spent on the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) and regardless of age. A particular objective is to provide a mechanism for those unemployed to pivot into new employment in new sectors through additional learning with new and relevant work experience.

Work is nearing completion on the development of this work placement scheme to provide work experience for jobseekers that have been unemployed for more than six months (to include time spent on PUP ). This initiative builds on advice from the Labour Market Advisory Council that such placements have the capacity to keep unemployed people close to the labour market and provide them with quality work experience to increase their employability. Moreover, work placements afford employers the opportunity to contribute to the national activation agenda. The use of work placements to straddle the transition from education and training to full-time employment has proven successful in the past and it is important that a new scheme under development provides valuable work experience for jobseekers.

With COVID related public health restrictions impacting on social mobility and business operations, it has not been possible to commence the programme over the past number of months. However, work has been steadily progressing to design and deliver a comprehensive programme to support 10,000 work placements for jobseekers with some 5,000 host organisations. It will provide important and valuable work and development opportunities to persons whose previous jobs are permanently lost due to COVID, as well as to those who were unemployed prior to COVID.

I expect to be in a position to bring details of the programme to Government shortly for consideration and approval with a view to launching the programme shortly thereafter.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.

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