The Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan, TD, has welcomed today’s launch of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs 2015.
Ireland’s competitive advantage in international markets, as well as the competitiveness of our regions, will increasingly be driven by the availability of world class skills at all levels. Ireland has a well-established reputation for its talented workforce but must continue to demonstrate our responsiveness to the changing needs of a recovering economy.
The Department of Education and Skills (DES) has a central role to play in the implementation of the Action Plan for Jobs,delivering the relevant education and training to assist the unemployed in entering the workforce and upskilling others to take up positions in a rapidly evolving jobs market.
Minister O’Sullivan said: “The Department of Education and Skills has ambitious targets in the Action Plan for Jobs and I, together with Minister English, am committed to achieving these targets. We know that the initiatives of recent years, such as the Springboard and Momentum programmes, are working and making a real difference for people. We need to build on that achievement.
As part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2015 we will:
- Review the National Skills Strategy and publish a new Strategy in 2015
- Implement the provision of places under the second iteration of Momentum and fifth round of Springboard
- Develop and commence implementation of a new Foreign Languages in Education Strategy
- Develop new Apprenticeships in response to proposals from key sectors of the economy
- Enhance engagement between the education and training system and employers to deliver high quality skills
- Incentivise an additional 1,250 ICT places for students in 2015
Minister Damien English said, “Increasing the quality and responsiveness of our training and education programmes is vital for a recovering economy. That work continues today, with for instance the Higher Education Authority issuing a call for proposals for the next round of Springboard, a very successful training initiative.Latest research indicates that 76% of participants in Springboard graduated in 2014 and that half of those who left a Springboard course early did so to take up employment.
“By working together – Government, industry, education providers and jobseekers themselves – we can tackle unemployment. I, along with Minister O’Sullivan, are committed to doing everything we can to ensure as many people as possible get back to work,” concluded Minister English.
ENDS
NOTES FOR EDITORS
About Action Plan for Jobs
The Action Plan for Jobs is the Government’s plan to improve the conditions for creating new jobs. It is a whole-of-Government initiative under which all 16 Government Departments and 46 Agencies work together to support job creation and protection, and is a sister document to Pathways to Work.
The main strategic ambitions of the Action Plan for Jobs are:
- to support 100,000 additional jobs by 2016
- to achieve a top 5 competitiveness ranking
- to build world class clusters in key sectors of opportunity
- to build an indigenous engine of growth
- to develop Ireland as the best small country in which to do business
Since the launch of the Action Plan for Jobs process in 2012, almost one thousand actions have been delivered. To find out more about Action Plan for Jobs and each year’s plan, see: http://www.merrionstreet.ie/en/allaboutjobs/Government-Programmes/Action_Plan_for_Jobs/
Action Plan for Jobs 2015
Action Plan for Jobs 2015 is the next step in the multi-annual process aimed at delivering full employment by 2018.
The Plan is the fourth annual plan in a multi-year process which started in early 2012, and sets out in detail the more than 300 actions to be taken by 16 Government Departments and dozens of State Agencies during 2015 to support job-creation, with deadlines and lead responsibility assigned. Building on the success of previous plans, the 2015 plan includes new Disruptive Reforms.
Action Plan for Jobs 2015 is available to download here: http://www.djei.ie/enterprise/apj.htm
OECD review of Action Plan for Jobs process
Among the conclusions of the OECD review of the APJ in May 2014 were:
“…Ireland’s Action Plan for Jobs (APJ) marks an important innovation in Irish governance…”
“Ireland is well on track to achieve the interim APJ target of 100,000 new jobs by 2016, while the longer-term aim of having 2.1 million employed people by 2020 also looks firmly within grasp.”
“The APJ’s most striking innovation in the Irish public policy context is a coordination mechanism that ensures high-level political buy-in and oversight, whole-of-government engagement and the establishment of quarterly targets underpinned by a robust monitoring system. These are important steps towards addressing long-standing gaps that undermine successful policy implementation.”
“The APJ’s focus on private sector-led, export-oriented job creation by getting framework conditions right and continually upgrading the business environment is a sound approach…”