Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 July 2015
120. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which he expects job creation over the next three years to focus on youth unemployment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29288/15]
View answerThe aim of the Action Plan for Jobs is to support enterprise growth and job creation for all age cohorts. While we have made great progress in addressing our unemployment and competitiveness challenges and in building a new, sustainable enterprise economy driven by skills, innovation and success in markets, we need to sustain the momentum and stretch ourselves further if we are to achieve sustainable full employment by 2018 and ensure that all parts of our regions benefit from the recovery.
Over 104,000 more people are at work since the launch of the first Action Plan for Jobs in 2012. The CSO data for June 2015 indicate that the number of persons aged under-25 on the Live Register has fallen by 22,300 over the two years since June 2013. This is equivalent to a decrease of 38 per cent over the last two years, which compares favourably with the overall rate of decline in the numbers unemployed on a Live Register basis of 28 per cent over the period. As a result, the proportion of the unemployed that are under-25 years of age has declined from 20.2 per cent in June 2013 to 17.6 per cent of the unemployed in June 2015. The overall rate of unemployment has declined from a peak of 15.1 per cent at the start of 2012 to 9.7 per cent in June 2015.
The Government’s primary strategy to tackle youth unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth and the availability of productive employment for young people.
My Department and agencies are working with other Departments and supporting the work of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) and the new Apprenticeship Council in advising on future enterprise skills needs and ensuring that education and training provision is providing our young people with the skills required to take up available employment opportunities. In particular we are focusing on the education and training provision in the areas where we see future job opportunities arising from both expansion and replacement demand for a range of occupational roles including in ICT, data analytics, manufacturing, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, international sales and marketing, project management, freight transport, distribution and logistics – including warehousing and growth in the hospitality sector.
While it is the Pathways to Work strategy that focuses on specific measures to improve employment opportunities for young persons, the steps taken to date under previous Action Plans, and those set out for this year, complement that work and directly assist young job seekers. The Action Plan for Jobs commits to implementing the 70 actions in Pathways to Work 2015. These include beginning the new account management approach to employers, roll-out JobPath, continuing to roll-out the Youth Guarantee initiatives, and introduce a Back to Work Family Dividend. In addition, as part of Pathways to Work, a new JobsPlus strand for young people will be available in 2015 under the Youth Guarantee.
The Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan was published in January 2014. The Youth Developmental Internship, First Steps, is an additional measure to provide youth with valuable work. This will offer young jobseekers aged between 18 and 25 the opportunity to gain valuable work experience and training with the help of dedicated assistance from department of Social Protection case officers. The target is to provide up to 1,500 work experience placements of six to nine months duration for young job seekers during 2015. Earlier and more intensive engagement by Intreo with the young unemployed will also be introduced. Models for the engagement of young people through Intreo have been agreed and will form the basis of the national roll-out of the Youth Guarantee in 2015.
There will be a continuing focus on improvement in skills provision through the provision of programmes for a diverse range of individuals including young unemployed people through the Education and Training Boards in the implementation of the Further Education Strategy 2014-2018, the Momentum programmes, the recent launch of the fifth iteration of Springboard, offering short higher education courses for jobseekers with previous work experience, employment incentive schemes such as JobsPlus and doubling of high-end skills as part of the second ICT Skills Action Plan. The launch of the call for new apprenticeships should provide further opportunities for young people to find rewarding careers for the future.
In the areas of entrepreneurship, the launch of the Local Enterprise Offices provides a first-stop-shop for young entrepreneurs with an idea or interested in starting a business and we will build on the success of “Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur” competition which was launched in 2014.
