Since its launch as part of the Government’s Jobs Initiative last
May, Springboard has already supported 5,000 people who had previously worked
in areas such as construction and manufacturing to re- train to work in areas
with high potential for job growth.
Now with this announcement, a further 6,000 places will be provided
to meet identified skills needs in areas such as ICT, Medical Devices,
Entrepreneurship and the Green Economy.
Courses are free, part-time, and are at certificate, degree and
postgraduate level. 36 institutes of technology, universities and privately-run
higher education colleges around the country will be offering 220 Springboard
courses. A number
of courses are starting in June but the majority will start in September. Most
Springboard courses are one-year-or-less in duration.
You can
view the full
list of Springboard 2012 courses by clicking here.
Eligibility:
To be
eligible for a place on a Springboard course a person must be unemployed and
actively seeking employment. The eligibility criteria for Springboard 2012 have
been expanded to include people who were previously self-employed and people in
receipt of an extended number of social welfare payments. Full details of
eligible social welfare payments and other eligibility criteria are available
on www.springboardcourses.ie
While
participation on a Springboard course will not confer any entitlement to
receive an income support payment from the Department of Social Protection,
participants who are in receipt of a Department of Social Protection income
support payment may be able to retain such payments subject to continuing to
meet the eligibility conditions.
Policy Responses to Unemployment:
Springboard
as an excellent example of a targeted policy response to the unemployment
challenge. To add to the work being done in Springboard, I have been examining further
policy responses, such as a youth guarantee, in recent meetings of the Joint
Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Education and Social Protection.
These
meetings with employers, unions and academics have looked at the issues of
youth and long term unemployment and a report by the committee will issue soon
with recommendations to inform Government policy.
One of
the main points to come from the meetings was the need to activate every organ
of the state to tackle unemployment. The state needs to be proactive and I believe
Springboard provides a practical example of this as the Department has
identified the skills needed and then provided the training places to meet them.
This form
of state activation sets the standard of how we should respond to the
unemployment crisis and I look forward to further similar policy responses that
help get people back to work.
If you have any queries about the Springboard Programme or any
other issue, please feel free to get in touch on 618 3280 or john.lyons@oir.ie
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