Minister Mitchell O’Connor address delegates at the ESF Conference.
Today the European Social Fund celebrated 60 Years of Investing in People with a one day conference in the Printworks, Dublin Castle. The conference brought together ESF stakeholders, policy makers, social partners and practitioners. The Conference also gave individual participants an opportunity to share their experiences of ESF co-funded activities including Springboard+, Youthreach and Third Level Access.
The conference discussion panels focused on four key themes:
· Skills That Matter - Education and Training Meeting the Needs of the Labour Market.
· Promoting and Enhancing Youth Employability.
· Realising Equality of Opportunity in Higher Education
· Employment and Entrepreneurship for Women and Migrants
Opening the session on Realising Equality of Opportunity in Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, Minister of State with special responsibility for Higher Education said,
“Today we celebrate, how, with the support of the ESF, more people than ever before in the history of the Irish State are participating in further and higher education. The recently published thematic report from Census 2016 on Education, Skills and the Irish Language notes that of those aged 15 and over in April 2016, 42% had a third-level qualification, compared with 13.6% in 1991. The ESF has supported the growth of the Institutes of Technology and has been instrumental in the development of the Further Education and Training Sector. It has also supported particular provision at third level as well as co-funding Third Level Access Measures, all off which feed into this significant increase in graduate numbers”.
In a video message, Ms. Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, stated that “investment in itself is not enough unless coupled with structural reform and policy innovations to solve new social and employment challenges, it is in this respect that the European Social Fund can make a difference on the ground”. The Commissioner said she looks forward to working with Ireland in the future “to ensure that the European Union continues to invest in our most precious resource, our people”.
The European Social Fund
The ESF was created in the Treaty of Rome 1957 which established the original European Economic Community. Its role is to improve employment opportunities, promote education and training and the acquisition of life-long skills and fight poverty and social exclusion across the European Union. By the end of the current round of funding in 2020, Ireland will have received some €7 billion assistance from the ESF since joining the Community in 1973. This ESF investment has supported the growth of the Institutes of Technology and has been instrumental in the development of the Further Education and Training Sector, in particular PLCs, Youthreach and BTEI. It has facilitated upskilling and promoted lifelong learning while also promoting a range of social inclusion initiatives.
For the 2014-2020 period, the Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) is the ESF Operational Programme in Ireland. The PEIL has a total budget of €1.157 billion, to which the ESF contributes €544.52 million, the Exchequer contributes €544.52 million and the EU Youth Employment Initiative budget contributes €68.145 million.