Local Development Companies are to the forefront of assisting people into meaningful work. Programmes include Local Employment Service (LES), Tús, Rural Social Scheme, Jobs Clubs, SICAP Pre-Employment Supports, Back to Work Enterprise Allowance. Community Employment (CE), Community Service Programme and Back to Work Enterprise.
There has been a welcome decrease in the Live Register in recent years but significant barriers remain for many people but “as employment increases, those who are remain unemployed are likely to experience multiple barriers to labour market participation meaning that employment is far from an immediate realistic prospect for many of them.” (ESRI, 2019, Proposal for Evaluation of SICAP Pre-Employment Supports p.4)
For this reason, “job creation alone is not sufficient in ensuring full employment’ (ibid p.1) and there is a difference in the services needed between activation in a time of recession and activation in a time of recovery and growth (cf. DEASP, 2016, Pathways to Work, 2016 – 2020).
Local Development Companies recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to assisting jobseekers. Thus, they provide a range of integrated services that include training, childcare, well-being and personal development, guidance services, activation, self-employment supports and enterprise services. These recognise the variety in people’s job-readiness and have in place individualised pathways to assist all jobseekers. VIEW CASE STUDY
These services have shown major success in independent evaluation. For instance, a recent Indecon report shows that 28.8% of referrals to LES progress to full-work work whilst the majority of the remaining caseload moved to part-time work and other progression pathways (Indecon Review of Local Employment Services, 2019).
Services are available at over 100 locations nationwide. Please contact your Local Development Company for further information.
