Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 June 2021
914. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection when the pathways to work strategy 2021-2024 will be launched; if further information on the announced work placement experience programme will be included in the strategy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31662/21]
View answerAs outlined under the Government’s Economic Recovery Plan, which was launched on June 1st 2021, a central focus of the recovery process will be on helping people get back to work, through the provision of employment support, additional training and work placement opportunities.
Central to achieving this objective will be the Government’s forthcoming national employment services strategy, ‘Pathways to Work 2021-2025’, which is currently being finalised by my Department By increasing labour market supports, and through the provision of employment support, activation and skills opportunities, the Pathways to Work strategy will act as a key delivery mechanism of the Economic Recovery Plan’s second pillar ‘Helping People Back into Work’.
In supporting people back into employment, the Pathways to Work 2021–2025 strategy will seek to minimise any long-term scarring effects of the pandemic on the labour force for those whose jobs are permanently lost while providing support to those unemployed pre-pandemic. The Strategy will also set out how an expanded Public Employment Service will utilise its existing and expanded capacity to deliver effective services in a post-Covid labour market with an overall target of increasing the caseload capacity by 100,000 per annum.
Another key element of the national Economic Recovery Plan is the establishment of a new Work Placement Experience Programme for those out of work for at least six months, regardless of age. This programme, which has a target of 10,000 participants by end-2022, will seek to encourage businesses to provide jobseekers with the necessary workplace skills to compete in the labour market and to help break the vicious circle of “no job without experience, no experience without a job”. I expect to launch this new work placement programme alongside the Pathways to Work Strategy, in the coming weeks.
I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.
