Press Statement: Action Plan on Jobs’ focus on training and education measures welcome.
13 February 2012: Angela Kerins, Chief Executive of the Rehab Group, welcomed the Government’s Action Plan on Jobs saying, “The Government’s Action Plan on Jobs represents a huge step forward in coordinating a national response to getting Ireland back to work. In addition to the industry and job stimulus measures announced in the Plan, Rehab Group particularly welcomes the Government’s recognition of the need for labour market activation measures which ensure that Ireland’s unemployed workers are kept close to the labour market and are enabled to upskill in order to take advantage of employment opportunities as they arise.”
“There are lessons to be learned from the success of the 2010-2011 Labour Market Activation Fund which, through a competitive tendering process, provided support to nearly 7,000 people to gain new skills to return to employment or educational opportunities.”
An evaluation carried out by PA Consulting found that Rehab’s JobFit programme which delivered the single largest number of places under the programme had extremely positive results; with 2,215 participants benefitting, 650 people progressing to employment and 522 moving on to further or higher education. The programme was jointly delivered by Rehab Group companies TBG Learning and National Learning Network.
“The findings of the Review of the LMAF should inform future funding of training in Ireland to ensure a diverse range of service providers are engaged to provide tailored training services which meet the needs of everyone in Ireland who is unemployed, in line with Ireland’s future skills needs.”
Ms Kerins also commented on the Action Plan’s commitment to prioritise education and training places for people who are long-term unemployed. “Supporting people who are long-term unemployed back to work is going to be essential to ensuring we have a strong workforce in place to benefit from recovery when it comes. This task should not be under-estimated. The longer our economic difficulties continue, the greater the challenge in getting people back to work. Those who unfortunately experience redundancy should have immediate access to supports to enable them to benefit from opportunities for employment and training. People who are long-term unemployed require specialist interventions in order to rebuild their confidence and their skills to get back to work. A range of supports, including specialist interventions should be put in place now to minimise the negative impacts of long-term unemployment”.
