Vol. 492 No. 7
56 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Education and Science the role his Department has in terms of presenting and providing alternative options for early school leavers apart from the established scheme which has failed to reduce the 220,000 unemployed and leads to problems for employers who find it impossible to fill vacancies due to the difficulties in the social welfare system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14987/98]
The Government is committed to addressing this issue on a concentrated and co-ordinated basis. I have already announced a major expansion in the Youthreach programme for tackling early school leavers among 15 to 18 year olds. The number of places within FAS and the VEC sector, including Senior Traveller Training Centres, will expand from 4,525 in 1997 to 6,765 in 1998. Youthreach was introduced to provide an integrated programme of education, vocational training and work experience in an out-of-school setting for those in the 15-18 age group who left school early with no qualifications. As such, the programme is targeted at preventing the drift into unemployment, rather than reducing the pool of those already unemployed.
Of those who left Youthreach in 1997 70.6 per cent progressed to employment or further education and training.
The other education interventions targeted at the unemployed are the vocational training opportunity scheme provided by my Department and the back to education allowance schemes implemented by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. Both of these schemes enable adults over 21 who are at least six months unemployed to return to education while retaining allowances in lieu of social welfare entitlements. They therefore play an important role in addressing the structural problem in the labour market, where over 63 per cent of the unemployed have not completed upper secondary education. The 1997 Labour Force Survey indicates that unemployment levels have now fallen to 159,200.
