COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE (1)

Monday, March 15, 2010

MOTION NO. 4

MOTION: Councillor M. Corr

That the Manager explores the possibility of developing a strategy within the RAPID areas of Tallaght to help address the issue of youth unemployment by offering internships/work experience opportunities with the Council to young people to engage in meaningful work that will benefit the RAPID communities and will award either an accreditation or equivalent award recognising their achievements or skills gained during the course of their internship.

REPORT:

FAS have confirmed that funding will be available in 2010 for additional courses aimed at providing training opportunities for young people with no formal qualifications,  and living in the RAPID areas of the County. All courses will be of 12-16 weeks duration and will be required to have an element of work experience built in to the programme. Two courses are currently running, and another  is due to begin on April 12th.

  RAPID Co-ordinators are working on developing several new proposals with local providers and will investigate if work experience opportuities can be made available to new trainees in the Council.The Council already has an Internship Programme in operation under the auspices of the Social Inclusion Unit, but this programme is geared towards the "new Irish" rather than young people from RAPID areas. The RAPID Co-ordiantors hope to develop a programme tailor-made for young people with no formal qualifications that will include an element of structured work experience with the Council. The vast majority of such schemes are associated with the appropriate accreditation and it is expected that this will be the case here also. The Council, through the RAPID Co-ordinators, will be collaborating with FAS and the educational authorities to design and implement such a programme and the Council would be keen to help in any way it can to ensure the success of the programme.