Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 February 2014
110. Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection if she is considering incentivising retraining in certain areas, for example technology, by allowing persons taking part in such courses to maintain their jobseeker's benefit so they can afford to learn the necessary skills. [7169/14]
View answerThe major elements of my Department’s response to unemployment are set out in the Pathways to Work policy which is aimed at ensuring that as many as possible of the job vacancies that are created are filled by people from the Live Register, with a particular focus on those who are long term unemployed or at risk of long-term unemployment.
The Pathways to Work policy aims, with regards to supports for unemployed persons, to:
Provide all registered unemployed people with efficient, work-focused income supports together with access to the information and the advice required to help them plan and action a pathway back into employment.
Provide unemployed people, in particular people who are long-term unemployed and young unemployed people, with opportunities to enhance their job prospects through value-adding work experience, education and training activities.
As part of this, there are in place a number of supports that allow unemployed people to receive a payment, based on their underlying job-seekers payment, while engaging in re-training:
The Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) scheme run by my Department provides income maintenance for unemployed people returning to full-time further or higher education, including the full range of technology courses provided at these levels across universities, Institutes of Technology and further education colleges. Approximately 26,000 previously-unemployed people participated in the BTEA in the last academic year.
Former FÁS Training Centres (all of which will be part of the Education and Training Boards by the middle of this year) also provide full-time shorter training courses for unemployed people, either in the centres or through contracted external trainers. There is a wide range of courses, including technology-related. Participants receive a training allowance in lieu of their jobseeker payment while attending these courses.
The Momentum programme, delivered through FÁS in 2013, provides free education and training projects for 6,500 long-term unemployed jobseekers in four themes of activity. One theme is devoted to technology occupations i.e. ICT, digital media, gaming and telecommunications. Participants retain the equivalent of their prior welfare payment, under the BTEA provisions.
The Springboard Initiative in higher education offers free, part-time courses at Certificate, Degree and Masters levels. Information Communications Technology (ICT) has been identified as one of the areas with demand from employers for qualifications. Participants in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment can retain their payment by registering for the Part-Time Education Option at their local social welfare office.
Evening courses and blended learning technology courses are also available through the former FÁS Training Centres, for which participants can retain their social welfare payments.
In general, unemployed people taking up full-time training (other than of very short duration) are supported either through training allowances or through BTEA. In order to incentivise young people to take up training, those young people on a reduced social welfare payment (i.e. €100 or €144) see their payments increase up to €160 while attending full-time training or education programmes.
Those taking up part-time courses or more intensive short duration courses are supported the Part-time Education Option (PTEO) and Education Training and Development Option (ET&D). The PTEO allows participants to attend part-time day/evening or weekend courses of education or training and retain their jobseeker’s payment while an entitlement exists provided that they continue to satisfy the conditions of being available for and genuinely seeking employment on an on-going basis. The ET&D allows participants to attend certain courses of education, training or development of short duration and retain their jobseeker’s payment while an entitlement exists. Participants are exempt from engaging in job search but must be available for employment should an opportunity arise.
In addition to these education and training options, JobBridge (the National Internship Scheme) provides work experience placements for interns for a 6 month or a 9 month period. Participants retain their prior welfare payment and also receive an additional weekly top-up payment of €50. Placements are in a range of occupational areas, including technology-related. Some 6,400 people are currently participating on this scheme.
