Farry Secures Way Forward On Youth Unemployment

Employment and Learning Minister, Dr Stephen Farry, today welcomed the Executive’s funding allocation of £13.8million in the June monitoring round.

This additional funding includes £8 million for Steps to Work, the Department’s main adult return to work programme and £5.8 million to tackle the ongoing problem of youth unemployment and NEETs in Northern Ireland.

The Minister said: "In March I secured the agreement of the Executive to a programme for tackling the rising numbers of our young people who are unemployed and need skills experience to help them move into work. Subsequently, in May, the Executive also agreed its strategy for assisting those Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs). The business case for the financing of these plans over the next three years has been approved by the Department of Finance and Personnel.

"I welcome that my Executive Colleagues have supported my proposals with an additional £5.8million budget allocation in the June monitoring round. I can now proceed to put in place a range of new measures to tackle youth unemployment in Northern Ireland. I will make a full statement to the Assembly next week in which I will set out my plans in detail.

"This will see an enhanced level of intervention compared to our neighbouring jurisdictions. These measures will be additional to existing provision and will be targeted at skills development for economic growth. It is important to acknowledge that they have been informed by local needs and circumstances as well as best practice from other jurisdictions, including Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland."

The Department for Employment and Learning has been developing a comprehensive policy response to youth unemployment and the persistent problem of young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) for some months. The funding announced today will allow the Department to put additional provision in place this year to begin to improve the employment and training prospects of our young people.

The plans, which were agreed by the Executive initially in March, represent a major investment with the range and scale of intervention being substantially more than in other parts of the United Kingdom. With both funding and approval of a detailed business case now in place, the Department will implement its plans in the next six months with a view to building up to full capacity by 2014/15.

The Minister will make a detailed statement to the Assembly next week.

(CD)