Next Steps for the Action Plan for Jobs in 2014 and 2015

Ireland’s Action Plan for Jobs represents a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to strengthening the competitiveness of the Irish Economy and to stimulating job creation. In the area of employment policies, this consolidates and builds on the government’s already considerable reforms to strengthen the delivery of placement services and other measures to assist and encourage the unemployed to find work. Nevertheless, there are a number of areas where more could be done:

Doing more to help youth and other disadvantaged groups find jobs. The Irish government is pushing ahead with the implementation of a Youth Guarantee scheme in line with the European Council recommendation in April 2013 agreed during Ireland’s Presidency of the Council (DSP, 2014). This is being done progressively and builds on the Pathways to Work programme where a number of measures have been developed to tackle long-term unemployment, including hiring subsidies and the Momentum re-training scheme. While these are welcome measures, the OECD report on “Options for an Irish Youth Guarantee” points to a number of areas where these measures could be adapted to make them more effective (OECD, 2014). For example, JobBridge is a large and expensive programme, having been expanded from 6 000 to 8 500 places in the 2013 Budget, and is not targeted specifically at the most disadvantaged groups. This may be acceptable at a time of chronic unemployment, but as unemployment starts to decline such efforts should be more closely targeted on vulnerable groups most at risk of remaining jobless. JobBridge acts as both a recruitment aid and a work experience programme. The latter function is clearly more valuable for those without recent labour market experience and should be expanded through a less costly version of this measure which could be targeted at the most disadvantaged. It is also important to avoid or minimise “lock-in” effects (i.e. a situation where job search is abandoned or minimised) during participation in a labour market programme. This means that Ireland’s public employment services should continue to support on-going job search among those participating in various programmes, especially as participation draws to an end. Ireland is strengthening its capacity in the area of job search support and activation, but this should be extended to those in programmes to maximise programme effectiveness. Participation in programmes such as JobBridge on a part-time basis could also be considered in order to facilitate job search.

Strengthening the provision of training, especially for the disadvantaged. The Former FÁS training centres now come under the aegis of a revamped institution, SOLAS. This brings with it a risk that disadvantaged clients may continue to experience low participation in training as Intreo is not sufficiently resourced to purchase training directly for this group. Following the establishment of SOLAS on a statutory basis in 2013, and the continued roll-out of Intreo offices during 2013 and 2014, it will be important to develop and ensure close links between the two agencies. Indeed, APJ 2013 acknowledges that the main challenge in implementing the National Skills Strategy is improving the skill levels of those with the lowest levels of qualifications. In this

Source: Pathways to Work Performance Report Q2 2013. http://www.welfare.ie/en/downloads/PTWQ2PerformanceReport.pdf

regard, the Momentum Fund, foreseen in APJ 2013 to train 6 500 long-term unemployed people, marks a welcome prioritisation. Such investments in training, up-skilling and life-long learning not only improve the capacity of the unemployed to find and hold jobs, but also to adapt to changing labour market conditions in the future, thus limiting career disruptions. They also serve to improve job quality, an objective that perhaps deserves greater focus in future APJs.

Ensure scarce resources are devoted to the most effective Active Labour Market Programmes (ALMPs). Ensuring that public spending on ALMPs is well targeted requires good information on the cost-effectiveness of these programmes. This in turn requires rigorous evaluation of programme outcomes. Similarly, the employment outcomes achieved by providers of contracted-out services should be rigorously evaluated and monitored. For example, the role of the long-established Community Employment Programme (CEP) should be reconsidered. While the CEP provides a range of valuable services to local communities, several evaluations have suggested that it is not a very cost-effective programme, especially in terms of getting the participants back into regular employment. On its own, the CEP accounts for 33% of total ALMP spending and 30% of all participants in such activation programmes – according to the 2014 Irish budget estimates. As employment recovers and unemployment continues to decline, one option would be for spending on CEP to be reduced progressively and for resources to be redirected to other, more effective ALMPs, or to subsidising the development of a modern apprenticeship programme. In this context, publication of and consultation on the government’s review of activation schemes is a welcome development, as is the APJ 2013 commitment to “tighten the targeting of activation places to improve employment impact”. It is important that the government follows through on this commitment through the 2014 and 2015 APJs, and through the ‘Pathways to Work’ strategy. Therefore, recent action to target the CEP more closely on long-term recipients of job-seekers’ payment is a welcome step.

Developing a modern apprenticeship system. Apprenticeships can help those young people who do not undertake further academic studies to gain useful skills and make a smoother transition from school to work. With the active participation of social partners, action could be taken to design and implement a modern apprenticeship system to replace the existing, narrow, craftsbased apprenticeship system. This would be a considerable challenge and may require significant resources to implement. It would be important that the government follows through in 2014 on the review of the Apprenticeship Training Model which formed part of APJ 2013.