MORE THAN a quarter of new registrants with Fás last year had a third-level qualification, figures from the State training agency indicate.
Between January and November 2011, more than 79,700 people who had never previously registered with Fás signed up with the agency’s employment services to try to find work and to retrain.
The recession has led to a significant shift in the types of people registering in a bid to improve their job prospects, with, for instance, some 26 per cent of new registrants having a third-level qualification. A total of 17 per cent came from a professional or technical background, while 7 per cent had worked in a managerial capacity before becoming unemployed.
A further 79,000 or so participants re-registered with Fás (soon to be replaced by Solas) over the same period.
Fás director of training Brian Fields said a lot of highly qualified people such as architects and civil engineers are registering. “It’s unlike the 1980s and 1990s when most people coming to Fás were first-time jobseekers, many of whom hadn’t completed the Leaving Cert. The type of person we are getting now . . . has worked for a number of years and has some qualifications . . . Quite a lot have third-level qualifications and many are highly skilled.”
The numbers of participants in Fás training courses more than doubled between 2007 and 2010, with more than 89,000 participants in 2010 compared to just under 40,000 in 2007.
Dr Fields said some people are signing up for courses to learn new skills with a view to gaining employment in a new field, while others are updating existing skills to make them more employable.
Information technology, business administration and green energy programmes are very popular, he said. “It’s about transferring their skills to another area and learning new skills,” he said. “We want to provide courses that have good job prospects at the end.” A meat processing/deboning course and a wind turbine maintenance course are among a range of new courses in the pipeline.
Individuals may need to sign up for training or education in order to continue to receive social welfare payments. Any individual applying for jobseekers’ benefit or allowance is required to register with employment services at the Department of Social Protection since January 1st, 2012. Employment services were previously under the remit of Fás.
People who find themselves out of work are also taking courses at the institutes of technology and the universities to improve their employment prospects. Between 2007-2008 and 2010-2011 there was a 36 per cent increase in mature full-time undergraduate new entrants and an 11 per cent increase in mature part-time new entrants, according to figures from the Higher Education Authority. About 4,500 people are taking part-time courses at third-level institutions and private colleges under the authority’s Springboard programme. The scheme is geared at graduates and those with apprenticeships who worked in sectors such as construction and manufacturing, where employment is unlikely to recover.
“The idea is to assist these people who are unemployed to re-enter the jobs market in a different area. I would imagine all of them would be changing their career direction,” said spokeswoman Niamh Godley.
“With the graduates, many are upskilling, but there are also graduates who are retraining to work in a different area,” she said.
“We know of accountants taking cloud computing courses, solicitors and engineers taking biopharmaceutical courses.”
Many people with a construction background have taken courses in the green economy and information technology, she said. “The majority of the courses are in the field of information technology because that’s where most of the jobs are.”
Mike McDonnell of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a body for human resources professionals, said a lot of people are using the downturn to consider starting out on their own. “There is a growth in entrepreneurship . . . people are saying the permanent, pensionable job isn’t a reality.”
According to John Deely of career guidance group Pinpoint, it is important to have a structured approach to job-hunting, to keep up with interests enjoyed before losing a job, and to keep up contact with people, whether friends, family or work associates.
‘I wasn’t even getting as far as the interview’
WHEN ANITA Thomas was made redundant from her job as a quality assurance manager at Gypsum Industries in January 2011, it came as a bolt from the blue. Although the company, which makes plasterboard, had been downsizing for the previous two years, it was mostly production staff that were affected.
However, following a restructuring programme to reduce staff numbers, the mother of one, who has an honours science degree and an MBA, found she was unemployed.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy as there weren’t very many jobs around, but I thought I’d have a reasonable chance of getting a job considering my experience,” says Thomas, whose previous employers include Xerox and Coca-Cola.
She began job-hunting, but despite her CV and experience, no doors were opening. “What most surprised me was I wasn’t even getting as far as the interview.
“When I looked at the jobs websites there seemed to be jobs in the pharmaceutical and medical devices sector, but because I had no experience of working in those industries, the recruitment agencies wouldn’t put me forward.
“I knew I’d have to reposition myself to put myself in a better position to get employment.”
At the beginning of June last Thomas, who lives in Castlebellingham, Co Louth, with her husband Peter and daughter Lucy, read about the Springboard programme in a newspaper and thought it would be a good idea.
A short time later she applied for a course in pharmaceutical science and medical device operations at the Institute of Technology, Tallaght, Dublin, which she started in July.
By November, Thomas had landed a contract as a quality assurance systems manager with Bellurgan Precision Engineering, a company that manufactures components for medical devices.
Aside from gaining invaluable core subject knowledge, Thomas found the programme brilliant in other ways. “They spent a lot of time on your CV . . . helping you take a good, hard look at your career positioning. There were mock job interviews and individual coaching sessions,” she says.
‘Idea came from rugby match in France’
IT WAS never on the cards for Katherina Stephens or her husband John Edwards to set up in business.
When the downturn came Stephens found herself out of work as an archeologist and began looking in other directions.
“There was absolutely no work. I decided to view it as an opportunity rather than a setback – that this was a chance to think outside the box . . . to set up my own business and be my own boss.”
She set up Sports Ink, together with her husband back in May 2010 making temporary tattoos.
“The idea [for temporary tattoos] came from an international rugby match in France . . . and we were laughing at our friends trying to find face paints in the Irish colours . . . We said temporary tattoos would be much better.”
Stephens embarked on a start your own business course with the Dublin City Enterprise Board.
In the meantime John, who is from Colorado, lost his job in a software company and joined Katherina in her venture.
In summer 2010 they sold temporary tattoos of flags and logos on the street at rugby, soccer and GAA matches as a test to see how much interest there was in their product. “We got such a fantastic response from people . . . we realised it was a real goer,” says Stephens who lives in Donnycarney, Dublin.
They both got places on a business development programme run by Dublin Institute of Technology and the Bolton Trust to learn as much as they could.
“It was absolutely fantastic . . . we got such great training from sales to using social media and internet selling.”
Their first big break came in 2011 when the Irish Cancer Society placed a large order for the Dublin mini-marathon. Sales have been growing since.
The IRFU and Amnesty International are just some of the organisations they have worked with and they have “steady orders” from GAA and rugby clubs around the country.
They have just launched a range of self-adhesive body jewellery called Body Brilliance.
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‘I knew it was coming. Business was down’
MARTIN DOLAN lost his job working in a bookmaker’s office in January 2011 after the company went bankrupt.
“It was not a surprise. I knew it was coming. Business was down,” says Dolan, a father of two who lives in Ovens, Co Cork, but who is originally from Surrey in England.
“I did try looking for work, but . . . there were no jobs out there that I was qualified to do. My wife had just gone back to work from maternity leave so I became a stay-at-home dad.”
Dolan is interested in computers and got a place on a Fás course in September 2011 to study for a European Computer Driving Licence. He enjoyed it and decided if there was another course he could do which would give him better employment prospects, he would take it.
“I believe everything happens for a reason,” he says in relation to losing his job. “I was sick of the bookies. I needed a career change and it was an opportunity,” says Dolan, who is educated to General Certificate of Education level.
He began a Fás course in Java computer programming at Cork Institute of Technology last November and has exams in April followed by four weeks of work experience.
“My plan is to get work. If you can get work experience, you have a chance of getting work from it,” he says. “My plan is to get some kind of junior role in computer programming or . . . to get a place on an internship. I think that’s the way in . . . and then to work my way up.
"I'm optimistic about the future. Computers is the only growth market at the moment. You just have to work away and hope it pays off." GEORGINA O'HALLORAN