Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 November 2013
425. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Social Protection the strategies her Department will be pursuing to reduce youth unemployment and to encourage young persons to start their own businesses. [50489/13]
View answerThe most recent statistics available from the CSO’s Quarterly National Household Survey show the level of youth unemployment has fallen from an average of 75,000 in 2010 to 63,000 in the most recent twelve months for which data are available. The level of employment of young people appears to have stabilised, and indeed the employment rate (proportion of the population with jobs) for those aged 20-24 years rose from 46.5% in mid-2012 to 49% in the second quarter of this year.
In the first instance, the Government’s primary strategy to tackle all forms of unemployment, including youth unemployment, is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity through the Action Plan for Jobs. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth and thus reduce unemployment and long-term unemployment. Past experience suggests that youth unemployment, which tends to rise relatively rapidly in a downturn, can be expected to fall relatively rapidly during the recovery.
The Government is also implementing a number of programmes to assist young unemployed persons and keep young jobseekers close to the labour market. There are five main approaches being taken to tackle youth unemployment: education, training, job search assistance/guidance, work experience, and encouraging job creation. These actions range across a number of Departments and Agencies and include:
- The Youthreach programme providing 6,000 integrated education, training and work experience for early school leavers without any qualifications or vocational training who are between 15 and 20 years of age;
- The Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme, which provides a range of courses to meet the education and training needs of unemployed people over 21 years of age, particularly focusing upon early school leavers;
- The Back to Education Allowance scheme run by the Department of Social Protection provides income maintenance for unemployed people returning to further or higher education. Over 6,500 young people participated on this scheme in the last academic year;
- Approximately 12,000 persons aged under 25 completed a training course with FÁS in 2012. This excludes apprenticeships and evening courses;
- MOMENTUM, a scheme for education and training interventions supports the provision of free education and training projects to allow 6,500 long term jobseekers to gain skills and to access work opportunities in identified growing sectors. Over 1,250 of these places are assigned specifically for under 25s;
- The JobBridge National Internship Scheme is focused on providing work experience to young people with the total number of placements of young people on JobBridge during 2012 at 2,700;
- Long-term unemployed youth will also benefit from the JobsPlus initiative which is designed to encourage employers to recruit long-term unemployed people. Under this scheme the State will pay circa €1 of every €4 it costs the employer to recruit a person from the Live Register.
Looking forward, in addition to current initiatives, policies to increase youth employment will be supplemented by additional measures under the Youth Guarantee which will be rolled out in 2014. The Department of Social Protection has set up an interdepartmental group with officials and programme managers from the Department of Education and Skills, Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation, and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, to review the current range of youth employment policies in Ireland to assess what measures will need to be taken to commence the implementation of the Guarantee. It is intended to produce a concrete plan for the implementation of the Guarantee for consideration by the Government in December before being transmitted to the European Commission by the end of 2013.
As an initial step towards preparing for implementation of the guarantee, provision was made in the 2014 Budget for:
- Changing the eligibility criteria for Jobs Plus to make it easier for young people to qualify for the scheme.
- an additional intake of 1,500 young people on to the very successful JobBridge scheme
- ensuring that 1,000 places on the Tús scheme are targeted at young people
- developing a pilot programme to support young unemployed people to take up opportunities under schemes such as Your First EURES Job
- ring-fencing a minimum of 2,000 training places for under-25s by the Department of Education and Skills, under a follow-up to the successful Momentum programme that operated in 2013, with income support for participants being provided by my department
- the Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation making funds available to young entrepreneurs via Micro finance Ireland and other business start-up schemes.
In total, the provision across these headings in the 2014 Budget comes to about €46 million.
Nurturing tomorrow’s entrepreneurs
With regard to young people and entrepreneurship, I am informed by the Minister for Jobs Enterprise and Innovation of a range of initiatives that exist to encourage young persons and others to start their own businesses. Sowing the seeds of entrepreneurship and exposing students to the fundamentals of business is an integral part of promoting an entrepreneurial culture. Enterprise Ireland coordinated and supported a number of the initiatives in 2012 to promote youth entrepreneurship and engagement in the world of hi-tech. These included CoderDojo, an Irish-led movement that is teaching kids globally to code software, and our annual Think Outside the Box awards, which aim to foster a spirit of entrepreneurship among third level students.
Competitive Start Fund
The purpose of the Competitive Start Fund is to accelerate the growth of start-up companies that have the capability to succeed in global markets. The fund is designed to enable those companies reach key commercial and technical milestones, for example:
- Evaluate overseas market opportunities and reach firm conclusions regarding the viability of the proposed business.
- Build a prototype.
- Secure a reference site.
- Develop a market entry plan for exploiting international opportunities.
- Secure partnership deal or strategic alliance.
- Identify suitable channels to international markets.
- Secure third party investment e.g. business angel, Venture Capital.
The CSF is open to entrepreneurs establishing early-stage businesses in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors. As with all EI supports, there are no set age limits, and there is a modest level of investment from the promoter required to avail of EI funding. As such, the CSF can represent an opportunity for youth entrepreneurs to avail of seed funding where the proposed project has international potential.
Think Outside The Box Awards
The Think Outside the Box Awards are aimed at third level students with a novel idea for a new business. Focusing on the development of business ideas with real commercial potential the provides cash prizes and the opportunity to avail of €30,000 worth of specialist advice and assistance to potentially help turn the enterprise idea into a business reality. The awards are sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, Intel, Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys and Grant Thornton. The Think Outside The Box Awards have an exclusive focus on third level students, from all academic disciplines and courses of study, and offer the opportunity to realise entrepreneurial ambitions. Given the focus of the Awards (third level), a significant number of the participants are in the youth entrepreneur cohort. Former winners have gone on to participate in business start-ups, and have availed of EI support.
New Frontiers
New Frontiers is Ireland’s national entrepreneur development programme that is delivered at a local level by the Institutes of Technology. For those with an innovative business idea and planning to establish and run your own company, the New Frontiers Entrepreneur Development Programme can provide a package of supports to help accelerate business development and to equip entrepreneurs with the skills and contacts needed to successfully start and grow your company.
New Frontiers provides Entrepreneurs with:
- Training in all areas of business including financial management, market research & validation, business process, patenting, product development, sales training;
- Mentoring from experienced business advisers and practitioners;
- Office and other business incubation facilities;
- €15,000 scholarship to cover full-time participation in the six month course;
- Networking with other entrepreneurs and business development agencies;
- Introductions to seed and early stage capital investment networks;
- Access to entrepreneurship best practice, both national and international;
- Peer-group learning from participants in the region and across the country;
- Access to the expertise in Enterprise Ireland through our Market Research Centre;
- Expertise from the Institutes of Technology and the supportive environment of their business incubation centres.
Launched in February 2012, the New Frontiers Entrepreneur Development Programme aims to support the creation of 100 high value, knowledge based, Irish owned businesses, each year. The programme can represent a good avenue for youth entrepreneurs with an innovative business idea to develop and hone their plans and develop an investor ready proposition.
FoodWorks
Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc are working together on a food sector entrepneurship programme which offers access to a range of supports including assistance in developing the business proposition, market research, and advice on business financing and supplier development.
SME Input:
Successful entrepreneurship is critical to Irish economic development, and consequently, supporting entrepreneurship is a central part of our Action Plan for Jobs. 67% of all new job-creation comes from businesses in the first five years of existence. A continuous and steady flow of new business start-ups plays a crucial role in creating jobs and sustainable economic growth and will be central to Ireland emerging out of its current problems.
To assist entrepreneurial activity, work is ongoing to deliver a National Entrepreneurship Policy Statement for Q4 of 2013. This new policy statement will be focussed on entrepreneurship in terms of start-up companies and aims to ensure that the overall environment is conducive to increasing the levels of people starting up new businesses across all industry sectors, both domestically trading and export-oriented. Within this statement there will also be a focus on youth entrepreneurship. Following the publication of the Policy Statement, a number of specific actions will be included for immediate implementation in the Action Plan for Jobs 2014.
CEB Input:
The County Enterprise Boards (CEBs) throughout the country provide supports, both financial and non-financial or "soft" supports, to all micro-enterprises in the start-up or expansion phase in manufacturing, tourism and services, subject to certain conditions. The soft supports include the provision of business advice, training and mentoring to all clients. The aim is to develop indigenous enterprise potential, stimulate economic activity at local level and promote the establishment of micro-enterprises within their administrative area. These supports are available to everyone, regardless of age.
The CEBs are also active in engaging with schools to promote entrepreneurship within the education system, primarily through close engagement with second level schools throughout Ireland but are also active with primary schools and third level colleges. The flagship of these activities is the national second level Student Enterprise Awards which attracts the participation of over 15,000 students from schools throughout the length and breadth of the country.
The Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation, together with the Enterprise Ireland, is also examining options for CEB-led initiatives aimed at promoting youth entrepreneurship, including a mix of financial supports for business start-ups, feasibility studies and mentoring.
