Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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655. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the vetting procedure that is carried out on positions submitted by an employer to the work placement experience programme before it is advertised publicly; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41532/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Work Placement Experience Programme (WPEP) is a key policy initiative under the Government's new national employment services strategy; Pathways to Work 2021-2025.  This sets out the national framework for activation and employment supports to assist persons, whose employment has been adversely affected by COVID, back to work while continuing to support those who were unemployed pre-pandemic find jobs.

The Pathways strategy sets out an ambitious plan for investment in a range of training, education, skill development, work placement schemes, recruitment subsidies and jobs search. This includes 50,000 additional places  in the further education and training sector, expanding the number of apprenticeships, increasing the capacity of the public employment service to provide employment support to more unemployed persons, 3,000 additional places on employment programmes such as Community Employment, as well as 10,000 places on this new work placement scheme (WPEP).

WPEP is a funded work placement scheme to provide work experience for 10,000 jobseekers who have been unemployed for more than six months, including time spent on the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP). Participation on WPEP is entirely voluntary.All participants are paid €306 per week plus any social welfare increases for qualified adults and children.  The intention is to provide quality and valuable work experience to unemployed persons. Work placements are recognised internationally as being effective in assisting jobseekers find new jobs.  The Labour Market Advisory Council also recommended the inclusion of a new work placement programme as one of the active labour market measures to be included in the Pathways to Work Strategy.

All WPEP placements are advertised on the Department’s online recruitment service website; jobsIreland.ie. All host organisations and individual placements are vetted for compliance and quality assurance purposes prior to being listed on jobsireland.ie to ensure that each placement provides quality work experience and training opportunities for jobseekers. 

In advance of advertising any placement opportunity, host organisations’ tax compliance is verified by the Department. Host organisation must have appropriate insurance and health and safety measures in place and accept the terms and conditions of the programme. 

The scope of the work experience on offer for each placement is reviewed in advance to ensure that it is in line with the objectives of the programme. In addition, placements must provide training opportunities, including workplace training and accredited training as part of the programme. Options include a new accredited work placement award which will be delivered by the Education and Training Boards at levels 3, 4 and 5. The provision of training to participants, is a pre-condition for host organisations to participate on the scheme. All host organisation must also demonstrate that they can provide supervision and mentoring to participants.

All the above are checked as part of the vetting process.  Where the above requirements are not satisfied then the placement is not approved nor advertised on jobsireland.ie.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.