Groups to reskill under 35s sought

THE DEPARTMENT of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is looking for a number of private organisations to train and reskill up to 3,000 people aged under 35, a spokesman for Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Mary Coughlan has said.

The Labour Market Activation Fund is to consist of two strands. One strand is to upskill those who have lost jobs in badly hit sectors such as construction, retailing and manufacturing.

The other strand is to retrain university graduates and people with qualifications who have lost their jobs – such as civil engineers, architects and solicitors.

The scheme will be aimed at under 35s because “youth employment is a huge issue” he said.

The Department of Enterprise is looking for the private sector to come to them with innovative ideas and concepts and potential paths to employment, he said. Key areas of retraining could include green and clean technologies.

The department was “testing the waters” to see what ideas were out there, and the scheme could be “expanded fairly easily” the spokesman said. It is the first time the department has gone to the private sector to ask for ideas on training, he said.

The move follows publication last week of a Comptroller and Auditor General report on Fás which found a lack of monitoring and evaluation of external training programmes.

The spokesman said this scheme was not being carried out through Fás because the agency was at full capacity and could only train 140,000 people at any time.

Applications for tender will be assessed by the department and it is envisaged it will be up and running by Easter, he said.