Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A MAN ON the JobPath employment activation scheme had his CV amended against his wishes to conceal his ethnicity, an Oireachtas Committee was told today.
Researchers from the Waterford Employment Research Collaborative (WUERC) – a research initiative set out to develop large-scale datasets around the experience of unemployment, was highly critical of the JobPath scheme – told the committee members that “a traveller was enrolled on a course that required reasonable levels of literacy despite having low levels of literacy and also had his CV amended against his wishes to conceal his ethnicity”.
Dr Ray Griffin and Dr Tom Boland who conducted the research said the JobPath scheme should be “discontinued immediately”.
JobPath is an employment activation service provided to people who have been on the live register for more than 12 months and are trying to secure and sustain full-time paid employment or self-employment.
TheJournal.ie revealed last year that the private companies contracted by the State to run the scheme, are entitled to €3,718 for every jobseeker that gains sustained employment for one year through the JobPath scheme.
The two private companies employed by the State, Turas Nua and Seetec, to operate the scheme have received €75.7 million and €73.3 million respectively to carry out its work.
In response to the assertion that a person on the JobPath programme had been asked “to change their name in order to disguise their ethnicity”, the Department of Social Protection said:
The Department has no awareness of such an allegation nor has any complaint to that effect been made. Had the Department received a complaint of this nature, it would have been fully investigated.
The contracted service providers, Turas Nua and Seetec have also confirmed that they do not have an awareness of such an allegation and that they have not received any complaints to that effect.
No positive experiences of JobPath
Dr Ray Griffin and Dr Tom Boland told the committee about the work they have carried out, in which they interviewed 121 unemployed individuals.
None of the interviewees reported positive experiences, with the researchers clarifying to the committee that they did not seek positive or negative experiences, rather just authentic accounts.
Their interviewees recalled being forced to “undertake futile bureaucratic routines such as mandated and monitored job search activity such as sitting at a computer for a prescribed period of time”.
They said their CV’s were rewritten in order to orient to existing job openings.
Interviewees told the researchers they were forced to undertake coaching, personal effectiveness and confidence training.
Giving further examples the committee was told:
An aspiring architect had her job-search micro-managed in a way that undermined her standing with local employers and was then directed to reduce her expectations and accept other work, and a pregnant woman was directed, under threat of sanctions to accept work at a call centre in a location some distance away which had no suitable transport options.
The researchers said their data clearly captures a shift towards a “less supportive, more conditional, less empathetic, more pressurising, welfare system, where the threat of sanctions was constant and individuals felt forced to perform as directed by case officers in Intreo or JobPath providers, often against their better judgement and usually without any positive outcome”.
Under the JobPath scheme many respondents told the researchers that they felt “actively and capriciously patronised, cajoled, threatened, manipulated and bullied”.
All respondents detailed the continual threat of sanctions, which made engagement and compliance with various tasks compulsory.
Our data demonstrates that beyond the actual application of sanctions, that the process of activation under threat of sanction is in and of itself a negative experience; the process is the punishment, as it were.
‘Poor practice’
Catherine Greene of the Kildare and Wicklow Education Training Board, but speaking on behalf of all training boards nationwide, said their organisations should have been tasked with the job that JobPath have been doing for the last number of years.
She told the committee it was “poor practice” to lift the JobPath model from the UK without making any changes or adaptations for working with the Irish public”.
She said the Job Path model was based on the model being used by the G4S recruitment company in the UK, which was criticised by the UK Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills.
“We have no difficulty with recruitment agencies as a model of accessing employment, but to use these services people must be highly skilled, workplace ready,” she said.
In terms of personal client testimony, she said to be referred to Turas Nua or Seetec – the private companies who are paid to run the scheme “is to be placed in a very vulnerable position and denied access to further education and training”.
There appears to have been a lack of recognition by Turas Nua of the trauma for people being at a major crossroads in their lives, in addition to a lack of understanding of their need to manage challenging barriers in terms of childcare, transport, disability, illness, bereavement, addiction issues and mental health issues post redundancy and financial stress.
She also gave the committee a number of examples of the Turas and Seetec experience.
She outlined one example of “inappropriate” behaviour in a case which a Department of Social Protection officer referred to the agency.
Man taken off education training
A JobPath operator in dealing with a 62-year-old man who had left school aged 10, and who had labouring jobs prior to spending over 20 years of his life in prison who was receiving Jobseekers Allowance after exiting the probation service, and experiencing anxiety.
The association said his only outing was to walk to his mother’s grave in darkness. His basic skills led the association to recommend a part-time literacy/ communications, computers and woodworking workshop in the local Adult Education Centre.
“He agreed to engage with the programme and I put counselling supports and made tutors aware of his anxiety issues. After six weeks into the programme he was called up by Turas Nua and removed from his Education programme, two weeks later he came to me in an extremely agitated state asking me to make a CV as he had been ordered to return to Turas Nua by the end of the week with evidence of 15 job applications submitted,” the committee was told.
“In this three-week period while he was engaging with Turas Nua, three different Turas Nua advisors had contacted me for a copy of his CV. Our client did a full year with Turas Nua without getting any work and we have recently learnt that he has returned to Turas Nua and he will be with them until Sept 2019. At present he is not engaged in any education/training or employment, but he is required to attend on a monthly basis,” said Greene.
Had her organisation, the Adult Educational Guidance Association (AEGA), been invested in during the years of austerity, rather than JobPath, unemployment statistics would have been so much better, she said.
She said the “forced march pattern” of this recruitment model has been unsuccessful with only 9% of participants securing longer term employment.
The committee was told there are serious questions to be asked in terms of the delivery model, given that it has been awarded a budget of €140 million since 2015.
“Only 9% of participants have progressed into full-time employment and 11,000 participants who previously used Turas Nua and Seetec are returning for a second year of participation. By comparison, in that same period i.e. the four years 2015- 2018 inclusively, the Guidance Services have met with and progressed more than 208,000 beneficiaries on an annual budget of just 6.55 million with a cost to the state of €125 per beneficiary,” it said.
Scrap JobPath
WUERC suggests investing in training and the Back-to-Education scheme, and to scrap JobPath.
“Policies which emphasise welfare conditionality and sanctions are short-sighted: requiring compliance under threat of being put below the minimum level of income has mainly negative consequences,” it said.
It added that the payment-by-results and short-term orientation of the JobPath contract are “unsuitable policy instruments”.
“The impact of JobPath on individual lives is decidedly negative, even where sanctions were not imposed. We envisage a long-term impact on overall social cohesion as a result of the experience and throughput of citizens through the initiative.”
Speaking in December, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar indicated that the JobPath scheme might not be needed in the future. The contract for Seetec and Turas Nua is due to expire this year.
“We are entering a different phase in our economy where we are heading towards full employment so obviously services such as JobPath may not be needed in the future but that is an assessment that the Minister, Deputy Doherty, will have to make,” said the Taoiseach.
Sinn Féin John Brady said Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty remains in “complete denial” about the failure of the scheme.
TD Bríd Smith said the “vicious ways” to force people into unsuitable employment is totally unsuitable.
Fianna Fáil TD John Curran, chairman of the committee, said the issue of JobPath has been something it has been investigating for some time now. Due to the contract for the service being possibly up for renewal shortly, the committee’s report is “timely” and will make recommendations to government.
The Department of Social Protection also said:
“It should be noted that each contractor has a comprehensive complaints process which contains various levels of escalation, allowing complaints to be dealt with at a level appropriate to the concern.
To the end of December 2018, 201,792 clients had commenced on JobPath with a total of 836 complaints recorded. Of these 29 are currently open, the rest having been finalised. 10 reviews have been requested by customers and are complete.
“At this time we are not aware of any complaints which have been forwarded to the Ombudsman for review.”
The Department is due to publish the results of the 2018 JobPath Customer Satisfaction Survey in the next few weeks.
“The results show continuing high levels of customer satisfaction with an overall satisfaction score of 4.15 on a five point scale.”
Seetec and Turas Nua were contacted for comment, but nothing was received by the time of publication.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I don’t think jobpath was ever about finding people jobs. Its primary objectives were to make the unemployment figures look good for the gov and make a lot of money for the 2 private companies involved.
@Adrian: it’s about finding people jobs but that’s behind making money and getting the unemployment numbers down..
Sadly, there’s folks out there who’ll just never be able for a career path. Putting a sixty-odd year old former prisoner through the ringer to get a job that he’ll only be in for a few years isn’t positive. Should someone like that be given up on? Of course not; but you have to be realistic and search for something more suitable than just ‘sending him on a computer course’. Those courses used to mean something, now every Tom, Dick and Harry has one with absolutely no interest in a career where they use a workstation, they’re just off the dole for the time they’re on the course.
Meanwhile, city streets are scruffy and it’s years since I’ve seen oul lads out maintaining the streets the way it used to be. Might not be a dream job but life would be boring if everyone done the same thing. If it puts a smile on his face, money in his pocket and the pride of being able to tell his grandkids about a day’s hard work as opposed to two lost decades while he was behind bars then it would be more suitable.
@Darren Bates: except there’s a sizeable cohort of people who have never and will never work and still get a payment from the Govt every week. We have nearly 10,000 people in this country who have been on the dole for more than a decade. I’ve no problem with a social welfare system that acts as a safety net in hard times but out of work for more than 10 years is a joke. In an era of full employment it should be 12 months max and then nothing.
All friendly and smiley but if you don’t follow the programme your social welfare payment is cut or you are cut off completely. Not a nice shower to deal with.
@Tony O Neill: Obviously for bums and wasters that don’t want to work.
@Tony O Neill: True! In addition, those who have studied economic social policy know that investor’s/business community actually want a certain level of unemployment in order to keep downward pressure on wage rates. 2005/2006 Most employer’s were complaining about employee retention and Ireland’s competitiveness as many employee’s sought pay increases. Then we had Richard Bruton FG lobbied by the business community to help abolish sectoral minimum wages. These sectoral minimum wages included a premium for anti-social hours of work such as security guard’s negotiated by Trade Union’s.
Jobpath is just a stick to beat the unemployed into any unsuitable, low paid work. Add to that JobPlus up to €10,000 rebate for employer’s who take on long-term unemployed who qualifying (i.e. all long-term unemployed who apply for JobPlus). This is another example of taxpayer’s money helping the unemployed secure work or if you like helping the business community source cheap labour, increase profit out of the taxpayer’s pocket. FFG are pro-business and will continue to pursue such policies whilst they reduce the standard of living for low to middle income taxpayer’s. Maintaining a certain level of unemployment even if not captured in the live register figures is a business community requirement i.e. CE schemes, TUS schemes, Jobpath schemes and Back to education schemes.
@Michael Reilly: what would you know shameful
Yes. Unfortunately these centres have a blatant conflict of interest!! They need funds from the government to survive and get their salaries paid, but the funds will only come if they help the unemployed get jobs!
What jobs?
It doesn’t matter, you are just a statistic to them, so to those skilled workers temporarily unemployed I would say use these agencies with caution because they don’t have your best interests at heart!! How could they?
FG wasting the citizen’s money again !!paying shyster firms millions to manipulate the figures .
€3.718 for every person they find a placement. 150 million to these companies . That’s shocking you could actually be paying these workers directly to some public works. What an incentive for these companies Fcuk around with people.
a lot of people on here very unsympathetic with the plight of someone who can’t or not able to get a good job. retraining is not the answer as I’ve gone back to college for 2 years and found nobody’s interested in a 55 year old disabled guy.
I’m on a disability allowance for the past 20 years not my fault but to listen to some people on here I should go without money and just go begging for food or money eh. i hope none of you have to go through some of the crap I’ve had to do to get a job.
@John Naghten: spot on
Imagine trying to get a person who doesn’t want to work a job?
@Pajo Mata: Were you reading a different article and commented on this one by accident? Don’t let reality get in the way of your predictably basic narrative now.
@Pajo Mata: no need for private companies, just do what virtually every other country does and time limit welfare
FG labour government really made people suffer and squandered millions of public money as well,they really should be ashamed of themselves.
Another DISGRACE
Add this to the smear test scandal
The tracker scandal
The high mortgage rates scandal
Water meter scandal
All Capitalist ploys disgraceful
150 mill so far to the two companies to operate scheme??? Wtaf..shut it down, not making iconomic sense even if CVS amended which is another disgrace, waste of our money
@Kerrie Roche: Now €170 Million.
The narrative never stops… Yes we’re all racist beef eating pro lifers. Music to your ears no doubt… You lot at the journal could do with doing some real journalism… How about an article on how the European commission plans to annihilate us post Brexit because of or low corporate tax. Just a thought
@Ger Murphy: Did you get so triggered by this article you just went off on an irrelevant rant that has nothing to do with anything in the article ye snowflake?
@Ger Murphy: Or the possibility that Germany may be inching towards a recession…
@Bryan Kelly: triggered hahaha you absolute mung
I agree with the research but third level colleges themselves are not behind the gap in taking people on courses that they do not have the aptitude for in exchange for a registration fee.
All the evidence you need: http://unitedpeople.ie/2019/01/17/the-jobpath-scandal-that-fine-gael-is-trying-to-bury/
Great fun here. Many communities are searching to recruit able body male and female Jon seekers but these persons are blocked by these two agencies to allow them to progress. Instead they force them to play silly games and in the meantime collect loads of money to swell their bank balance.
have your say