Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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509. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of complaints that have been received from participants on the work placement experience programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46518/21]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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513. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of employers who have been removed or banned from the work placement experience programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46522/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 509 and 513 together.

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. WPEP is 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). 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.

To date there have been no complaints received from participants in relation to the WPEP programme. While placements can be closed for a number of reasons and placements must satisfy certain criteria prior to being advertised, to date no employer has been banned from WPEP or removed for any other reason other than where a placement was closed. Placements are closed when the placement is filled, after the placement has been advertised for 28 days, or where requested by the host organisation.

Any complaints received relating to participation on the WPEP will be investigated in full by the Department's case officer as part of the ongoing monitoring of the programme and the individual placement.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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510. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of participants who have started on the work placement experience programme; the number who are currently on the programme; the number who have finished placements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46519/21]

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.

WPEP is 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). 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.

As of 23rd September, 83 WPEP placement have been approved and of these 50 participants started their placements. There have been four instances where the participant has finished the placement early and, in one case, the participant involved did not start the placement.

There are therefore currently 45 active participants on the scheme. In addition, a further 33 participants have been issued a WPEP start date and will take up placements in this coming weeks.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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511. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of employers who have requested a position they submitted to the work placement experience programme to be removed from the website; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46520/21]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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512. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of positions on the work placement experience programme that have been refused due to the fact that the position did not meet the standards of the scheme or that were removed for the same reason; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46521/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 511 and 512 together.

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. 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.

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.ieto ensure that each placement provides quality work experience and training opportunities for jobseekers.

Placements are not removed from jobsireland.ie but may be closed from jobsireland.ie for one of a number of reasons. The primary reason a placement is closed is where a jobseeker has taken up a placement or where a jobseeker has been selected for a placement with a future start date.

Placements can also be closed by or at the request of a host organisation or where the placement has been advertised for 28 days. In many such cases, the organisations may choose re-advertise the placements.

As of 23^rdSeptember 2021, 169 WPEP placements that were advertised on jobsireland.ie have closed for one of the reasons cited above.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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514. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if employers who were banned from the JobBridge scheme for abusing the scheme have been prevented from advertising positions on the work placement experience programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46523/21]

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. WPEP is 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). 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 and the scheme has been designed on this basis.

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 published 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 confirm appropriate insurance and health and safety measures in place and accept the terms and conditions of the programme.

Each work placement published on JobsIreland is reviewed in advance to ensure that it provides sufficient information on the nature of the work experience and training being offered by the host. The provision of training to participants, is a pre-condition for host organisations to participate on the scheme. Options include a new accredited QQI work placement module available to all WPEP participants and delivered by the Education and Training Boards at QQI levels 3, 4 and 5. Host organisations must also demonstrate that they can provide supervision and mentoring to participants. Where the above requirements are not satisfied the placement will not be approved or advertised on jobsireland.ie.

Host organisations and individual placements are approved in accordance with these stringent WPEP eligibility criteria and not for any other reason.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.