The Department of Social Protection operates a range of employment support measures designed to encourage and support social welfare recipients of working age to reduce their dependency on welfare payments. This is done through the operation of a number of schemes such as the Back to Education scheme, Back to Work Enterprise allowance scheme, the Short-Term Enterprise allowance scheme, the Technical Assistance and Training Grants and the Employer Job (PRSI) Incentive scheme. In addition the Activation and Family Support Programme offers supports to social welfare customers and other disadvantaged persons to assist them to improve their employability and personal and family situations.
The Back to Education Allowance scheme (BTEA) is a scheme which encourages and facilitates people on certain social welfare payments, mainly unemployment, lone parents and illness and disability payments, to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active work force.
The focus of the Back to Education Allowance is to assist those who are most marginalised and distant from the labour market to acquire the necessary education to improve their chances of becoming independent of the social welfare system.
The number of participants in the scheme in the 2009/2010 academic year was 20,808 which represented a 79% increase on the previous year. The 2008/2009 academic year also showed an increase of 31% on the previous academic year.
The back to education scheme is only one of the support services through which Government is responding to the challenge of preventing drift into long-term unemployment. In the area of education 157,000 training and work experience places will be provided in 2010, compared to 66,00 places in 2008; higher education institutions have increased the number of places on offer; 48,000 learners will participate in full-time education including VTOS, Youthreach and PLC programmes; an estimated 125,000 will participate in part-time education programmes under the adult literacy, community education and Back to Education schemes; and the Labour Market Activation Fund is supporting almost 60 innovative projects and 12,000 participants in 2010.
This range of programmes and schemes will support unemployed people in acquiring skills which will assist them in returning to employment as the economy recovers and minimise the risk of their drifting into long-term unemployment.