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THE GOVERNMENT IS aiming to get 75,000 long-term unemployed people into employment within the next two years under a new plan launched today.
The Pathways to Work 2021-2025 strategy will also seek to reduce youth unemployment rate to 12.5%, provide 50,000 further education and training places, deliver 10,000 apprentices and ring-fence 1,000 places on community employment and Tús programmes.
A €1,000 training support grant is to be provided to jobseekers to avail of short-term, accredited training programmes, such as a Safe Pass course.
The strategy will aim to provide recruitment subsidies of between €7,500 and €10,000 for employers who take people off the live register.
A new work experience placement scheme is also to be rolled out, which will see 10,000 jobseekers of all ages who have been unemployed for more than six months paid €306 per week as part of their placement.
The scheme is a voluntary, opt-in scheme for those wishing to gain work experience by working 30 hours per week while receiving their social welfare payment.
The new strategy is being launched today in Dundalk by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris and Minister of State Damien English.
“As we recover from this pandemic, Pathways to Work is about ensuring we support and assist tens of thousands of our citizens in entering or re-entering the workforce,” Minister Humphreys said today.
“It’s about leaving nobody behind, providing new opportunities to retrain and re-skill and, above all, giving people the support they need to secure quality, sustainable employment,” she said.
“This is important for our society, our economy and for every unemployed person, whether they lost their jobs due to Covid or who were already unemployed pre-Covid.”
Investment in human capital is going to be key to our recovery, says the Taoiseach pic.twitter.com/n9GQ9JlO0S
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) July 12, 2021
Work Placement Experience Programme
Alongside the Pathways to Work strategy, the government has also launched a new Work Placement Experience Programme.
This new programme will benefit 10,000 jobseekers of all ages, who have been unemployed for more than six months (including time in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment).
This initiative aims to keep jobseekers close to the labour market and provide them with quality work experience to increase their prospects of returning to employment.
Participation will be entirely voluntary and the payment rate for participants on this programme is set at €306 per week.
The total cost of this programme over two years is €95 million with a contribution of €27 million from the National Training Fund.
This programme is also included as a priority for funding under the National Resilience and Recovery Plan submitted to the EU Commission.
“This new programme will provide unemployed people with the opportunity to build their work experience and avail of accredited training and development opportunities,” Humphreys said.
“I strongly encourage employers and jobseekers alike to participate and get involved in this new work placement experience programme over the coming months,” she said.
In addition, the government announced that subsidies of up to €10,000 will be paid to employers who hire people that are on the Live Register.
Harris also announced that 50,000 further and higher education training places are to be made available.
He highlighted that the government is also focusing on boosting the apprenticeship programmes, adding that the scheme that pays employers €3,000 to take on an apprenticeship has also been extended to the end of the year.
With reporting by Christina Finn
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This Government seem very sure about being in power in the next two years….I think not!
@Jeff Nolan: So a government shouldn’t govern for the future? They should only plan for their term? No long term planning? Is that your rationale?
@James Burns: Like kicking the NCH BAM claims fiasco down the road for the next gov do deal with… Great bunch of lads altogether
@Jeff Nolan: no elections planned any time soon.
I hope this is not just another rebranding exercise and that lessons have been learned from the Jobsbridge/Seetec/Turns Nua fiasco that was foisted upon us by former FG Employment Affairs Minister Regina Doherty, whereby participants were bullied, coerced, cajoled and exploited.
This government will be lucky to see out the summer let alone 2 more years.
@Declan Doherty: Have you seen the polls recently ? Neither of the 3 government partners will want an election any time soon.
@Tommy Roche: What you on about? A recent poll showed that the majority still support the 3 of them. As for an election, we just had one last year!
@Fionn Darland: A more recent election showed otherwise.
@Da Dell: “A more recent election showed otherwise.”
A by election in one rather affluent urban constituency. Hardly indicative of the entire country.
Anyway, unless some scandal forces their hand the current shower will be in government until 2025. Just think of all the tax breaks they can ‘dole’ out to the rich and powerful between now and then.
@Will: Its about as indicative as the ‘polls’ fionn was on about. I was replying to him, he tries to spin the jobsbridge fiasco as a great success also.
It doesn’t matter who you vote for. You always get the government.
@cathalsurfs: Who up until the last GE consisted of either FF or FG as the major party in power, however in the last GE the vote for FF & FG declined to such a degree that they had to form a coalition with one another for the first time in history to hold onto power.
could we do something for working people? my partner took on a extra days work and then they just took any benefit from her because they cut the supplementary benefits. she works monday to friday, i work friday to monday. we are worse off now than we have ever been. i would say if we were both unemployed our lifestyle would be practically the same. The poverty trap needs to be addressed.
Sounds just like all the previous flawed plans that they have had over the years in this area, open to abuse, exploitation, ineffective and more of a book cooking exercise to fiddle the numbers.
Nobody can afford to rent in Dublin and thats where all the jobs are located.All contract work and no permanent jobs.
@Úna O Connor Barrett: there are plenty of permanent jobs around.
@Sam Harms: Permanent zero hour contracts.
Isn’t this just JobBridge repackaged?
There is a reason MOST of these are long term unemployed, and no scheme will change that
@Mel Finn: The dole should only be a short term thing with a definite end – that’s the way it is in most countries. If people choose not to work then grand but they shouldn’t be subsidized by the tax payer
@Damon16: so, the fact that I’ve been unemployed since 2019, despite sending out hundreds of cvs, 9ver 99% of which were never even looked at.. was my choice, was it?
Why would you work for 10 euro an hour better of on the dole
@Fran O’Keeffe: Because maybe you would gain some experience and then be able to move to a better paying job? Not everyone is content to wait for handouts.
@HectorPickaxe: go way outta that
@Fran O’Keeffe: because working and doing something with your time is good for your mental well being?
Job Bridge 2.0
@Black Iron Tarkus: I have to agree with you here, sounds exactly the same, and open to lots of abuse. I can see many roles which my have been long term average industrial wage paid jobs now filled with this scheme.
Will need those jobs so they can afford the high rents..
@Kieran Graham: Won’t afford rent on these wages..We will subsidise the rent and probably medical expenses because the cost of living is so far out of whack the only was low wage people can survive is being subsidised..The damage FF FG have done in last couple of decades is enormous and lots of the heat from the poor decions is yet to hit..
most of these schemes are a joke.I was on a scheme years ago in a boxing club for a year where it was only open 9 or 10 weeks in the summer for training 2 nights a week.I went in the next morning picked up water bottles swept and mopped and that was it.I also cut the grass outside during the summer months.It was a 19.5 hour a week placement for 12 months, I was shown at the start how to fill out a time sheet” just put down your were cleaning the ring ” ect.Then when a manager was around from head office Id get a warning I could get a visit Tuesday so make sure your there. total joke and just massaging the figures, 1 more off the live register.
What was Solas and the Dept of Social Protection doing for the last two years? Definitely underperforming by the looks of things. Just another scheme with no meaningful training incorporated into it.
Great initiative to help those with a bit of work ethic trained and back into useful well paid employment. Well done FF, FG and the GP.
@Fionn Darland: If only it was well paid…Nice fantasy you have there
@Fionn Darland: Well paid? Are you on drugs or is it drink?
@David Corrigan: Both id say and a large side helping of leo & regina juice.
@Fionn Darland: Haha are you echoing Varadkar there?! Ah yes, the young people exploited on Jobbridge 2.0 will be in permanent, well-paid jobs, getting up early and contributing to society in no time. Hmmm…unless that “work experience” is just working in Spar or the likes filling some rich employer’s pockets while the government gets to paper over the real unemployment numbers. And when you’re done, you go straight back on the dole or continue in a job that doesn’t pay a living wage. Great.
The whole scheme is an insult and you FF/FG/GP heads gobble it up!
What about the 100,000+ left unemployed due to government restrictions? All that taxpayer money spent for a net loss of 25k+ jobs. How in the name of god do we end up with such unqualified incompetent representatives?
What about the single parents . Childcare is a big issue once your child goes to school . Very few places will take them . And if they do you have to have them collected by 6 .
Using our money to get inefficient people paid more is not good policy. How about businesses keep their tax money and hire actually effective employees.
Apprenticeships is what is needed, where in the past tradesmen on site all had apprentices Sadly now there are very few
@George Demo: Spot on…
We need a major apprenticeship drive unlike any other, try getting a tradesman now its nearly impossible unless you are prepared to pay well over the odds. Incentivise hiring of apprentices.
We can’t expect sense from this government though we all know that by now.
I know people in their 30s and even 40s that would jump for one but wages in the early years are prohibitive for people with rent/mortgage/family/childcare etc etc.
@George Demo: forget about the construction trade , miserable life with no security, if you are young an smart get a job in the public or civil sector . Proper holidays ,pension, security, sick pay. Cushdy. Once you pass 45 in the trades you are you are a mug.
Lies, dammed lies, and statistics!
Free workers for businesses and a way to fiddle the unemployment numbers for the government – that’s all this is – we need permanent jobs available – long term unemployed scheme’s should be for people ten or more years unemployed – this is just exploiting genuine people looking for permanent work
New JobBridge scheme is slave labour for the bosses.
“Work Placement Experience Programme” will pay €3.43 an hour.
Boss gets a free slave worker and pays nothing to wages.
Every worker needs to oppose these slave labour schemes as they will be used to push all wages down. https://t.co/vaUE2LJiOh
These schemes are always a problem since they effectively punish those who aren’t on social welfare like part time workers or those looking for a career change since they financially incentivise employers to only hire the long term unemployed.
It means opportunities reduce for others and they may face the ridiculous scenario of having to first become long term unemployed in order to increase their employment prospects.
Unfortunately it’s probably more about massaging the numbers of a particularly damning statistic for this government than “investment in human capital”
Scab labour
I think a lot of people are waiting until the Pandemic isn’t a problem before protesting.
The continuing slide in people’s living standards is falling all the time, I really feel for young people old sods like me with a mortgage finished very shortly are the lucky ones.
If we don’t care about our youth we are going backwards!
While I’m one of the long term unemployed and a single parent of a child with additional needs. What about the others that are paying massive amounts to get masters degree, diplomas, etc working up huge debts. Families where parents are working too many hours, just to keep the roof over their heads or keep the food on the table. Working families lose out on so many benefits compared to a single parent and I don’t think that’s very fair. I worked from the age of 16 until I was 30 in different places. My last job was a redundancy after 7 years. Although the last job nearly killed me mental health wise. But I don’t just sit around all day doing nothing, I volunteer my time because I know right now I’m not mentally stable to go back to work or afford childcare.
Please let it not be another job bridge that takes all the casual jobs and hours from people that need them , students or temps
So when they are getting there €306 aweek or €1.224 a month they be of the live register.. now after paying 2k rent to live in Dublin how will they eat and pay bills,because the employers will not top there wage up much more and will be only taking them for the grants..who thinks this stuff up,, if they stay on the €203 a week they get there rent paid so this brain wave doesn’t get seem very well thought out,,
have your say