COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 14, 2009

QUESTION NO. 17

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Manager if the council is engaged or planning to engage with the FAS Work Placement Programme placement?

REPLY:

It is proposed to set up a network of intellectual enterprise zones throughout the county where individuals can use the space on a ‘time share basis’ to run and operate their business and where persons on the live register can develop added value skills.  In tandem with the physical space it is proposed to develop a virtual business campus or intellectual enterprise zones where research can be carried out into the cost of doing business and innovative new technologies will be pursued with a view to creating new business opportunities.  This space will also afford participants to engage in a community of practice and network with like minded individuals.  The web presence be an interactive space where participants in the programme can feedback their observations, ask questions, register for various training programmes, interact with colleagues and book time/space in the Intellectual Enterprise Zone work space.  A feedback form on the open day is being developed as part of this work and will be circulated to all participants for their input.

The physical zones will be clustered at key locations throughout the County, namely in town centre locations with access to public infrastructure such as the LUAS.  The zones will initially be located in public buildings such as County Hall, Tallaght and the Civic Centre in Clondalkin and other community facilities throughout the County.

Scoping of ideas and meeting with Stakeholders

Initial meetings have been held with the Dublin Regional Director of FAS to scope out the possibility of designing specific interventions for those on the live register that are highly skilled and/or professionally qualified.  These interventions may include use of the work placement programme where appropriate. Meetings were also held with the managers of the Dodder Valley Partnership and Liffey Valley Partnerships to examine possible initiatives for medium and low skilled workers currently on the live register.  The County Enterprise Board and Chamber of Commerce have also been actively engaged examining businesses currently in the County and the barriers/opportunities to doing business effectively.

Subsequent meetings have been held with the local manager of Employment Services and manager of the Local Training Centre of FAS to begin to design a specific intervention.  The proposed scheme will follow the template of a LTI (Local training initiative) course where SDCC will be the corporate sponsors.

The courses will be delivered on site in SDCC’s facilities (training suite, library, digital media centre), designed by SDCC and funded by FAS.  The aim of the course will be to give highly skilled professionals new skills in the areas of technology, business management and entrepreneurial skills with a view to aiding individuals establish themselves as a SME.  In tandem with this specific intervention a piece of research will also be undertaken to examine the cost of doing business in the County and to look at ways to work smarter.

Attendees at the course will be invited to participate in forming research cells in their particular areas of expertise with a view to determining new and innovative ways to drive down the cost of doing business.

Following on from the series of meetings a working group has been established under the County Development Board to progress the actions as identified.  An open day was also planned to engage directly with a targeted group on the live register to gauge the level of interest in such a programme. 

Targeting the demographic

The initial programme was specifically targeted at those individuals currently on the live register that are highly skilled and/or professionally qualified.  Working in collaboration with the manager of the local Social Welfare Office we have extracted from the 100 categories of professions/jobs on their database those categories which equate to highly skilled and/or professional job categories.  There are 22 categories of this type.

 Social Welfare sent a mail shot (attached) directly to six hundred individuals from the following professions/skills:-

·        engineers & technologists

·         teachers

·        legal professionals

·        financial professionals

·        IT professionals

·        quantity surveyors

·        architects

Informing them of this initiative and directed those interested to register on line at http://www.southdublin.ie/enterprisezone/enterprisezone-openday.html.  We had sixty registrations expressing an interest in attending the open day.  Following the registration process those interested were invited to upload their skills profile and outline what specific supports and/or training they feel they might require to facilitate their return to the workforce.  Interventions are also being examined and designed for the groups that fall into medium and low skill occupations.  These initiatives are being led by the Dodder Valley Partnership and the Liffey Valley Partnership.

Further to these specific initiatives, SDCC in partnership with The Synergy Centre, IT Tallaght will conduct research into the cost of doing business, barriers to setting up business in the County and the factors influencing a small company’s decision to remain in business, re-locate or fold.  This research will be conducted by way of an online questionnaire hosted on www.sdublincoco.com and will be targeted at the 300 (approx.) SME’s that have graduated through Synergy’s training and mentoring programmes.  Synergy will contact all alumni of their programme and encourage them to participate in the research.

Open day

The open day was held on April 30th inst and fifty participants attended.  The programme for the day outlined the following:-

The speakers on the day were representative of SDCC, FAS and Social Welfare.  There was excellent interaction on the day and the participants were afforded the opportunity to feedback their observations and thoughts on the open day, some of which was voiced on the day and others chose to send feedback through email.

 Inter Agency Coordinator & web presence

An inter agency coordinator has been engaged by the CDB to progress the project.  They have been tasked with establishing the working group and ensuring representation from all stakeholders. Further to this the coordinator is working with the Council’s IT department to develop the web presence that will seek to engage with participants in the programme.  It is envisaged that this web presence will be an interactive space where participants in the programme can feedback their observations, ask questions, register for various training programmes, and interact with colleagues and book time/space in the Intellectual Enterprise Zone work space which has been fitted out and will be launched shortly

  Next steps