Dr Katherine Zappone T.D, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, has
today announced details of the 28 community based youth services that are
to benefit under the new Youth Employability Initiative.
The €600,000 initiative, funded under the Dormant Accounts Fund, will
provide grants to voluntary youth services for programmes that target
disadvantaged young people to improve their employability. Over 380,000
young people participate in youth services, programmes and clubs throughout
the country. Young people who engage in youth work activities have the
opportunity to attain specific skills which can enhance employability.
These skills include learning to learn, social and civic competence,
leadership, communication, teamwork, and entrepreneurship. These are the
‘soft skills’ that are relevant and applicable to industry and valued and
sought after by employers.
The new Youth Employability Initiative targets those young people who are
most at risk of unemployment and who are not in education, employment or
training. It provides programmes for them to enhance these skills.
Over 1000 young people aged 15-24 from across the country will participate
in the 28 projects announced today. While each project is different they
can be broadly grouped into 4 categories.
• Social enterprise – These are projects which focus on developing
enterprise skills and competencies in young people. For example Rialto
Youth Project in Dublin 8 will target 10 young people from the Rialto,
Inchicore and Bluebell area to design and develop sustainable social
enterprises by providing a dynamic and positive space for participants to
develop their ideas and visions for themselves and their communities.
• Pre-training– These projects aim to provide tailored programmes to
young people in need of additional support including young offenders, young
people with addiction issues, young Travellers and young people with
disabilities. The aim is to support these young people to access training
programmes available in their areas. Once such programme will be delivered
by Tipperary Regional Youth Service.
• Career guidance projects – These are projects which provide ‘wrap
around’ tailored career guidance support including programmes that help
young people to identify and address barriers to their progression. The
Candle Community Trust in Ballyfermot will establish a Jobs Club two days
per week and target the 186 young people they currently work with from the
area for this type of additional support.
• Helping young people to get qualifications– These are projects which
aim to support young people to gain accreditation including sports related
accreditation. For instance, YMCA in Aungier Street will work with long
term unemployed young people in a sports leadership programme that will see
participants gain accreditation in a range of adventure sports areas
including kayaking and mountain skills.
Announcing the funding Dr Katherine Zappone T.D., Minister for Children and
Youth Affairs said ‘I am very pleased to announce this initiative today
which is a key commitment for my Department in the Programme for Government
and also makes a contribution towards the Government Action Plan on Jobs’.
The Minister also said that while all 28 youth services have experience in
working with difficult to engage young people, this is a new type of work
for both the youth projects and her Department. The Department will set up
a Forum with the successful projects to provide a community of learning to
share experiences and knowledge and to gather and share the lessons from
this initiative to inform future policy in this area. The Initiative will
be also be evaluated.
Click here for a full list of projects funded, and a short summary of the proposed programmes.