Ó An Roinn Breisoideachais agus Ardoideachais, Taighde, Nuálaíochta agus Eolaíochta
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Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, has today congratulated graduates of a three-week construction and retrofitting course.
The East Docklands Local Employment Service Construction Skills and Retrofitting programme in Dublin Port, run by St Andrew’s Resource Centre, is focused on helping the long-term unemployed upskill quickly and find gainful employment in the construction industry.
Speaking today, Minister Harris said:
“As we aim to become Carbon Neutral by 2030, retrofitting has become a key skill for access to many residential and commercial projects.
“The aim of the programme is to break down barriers between unemployed and employers. I fully believe that the work that happens here is a crucial step towards introducing these learners back into the jobs.
“With an average of 63% gaining employment within the first month of completing this course, I have no doubt there will be a significant appetite for the second round.
“I want to thank the St Andrew’s Resource Centre, as Department of Social Protection, Dublin Port, Skillnet Ireland, Dublin City Council, North East Inner City Taskforce and the Inner City Renewal Group, for all their tireless work on this project, and without whom we would not have been here today to mark this special occasion.”
The three-week construction course, which began four years ago and recently added “Green Home” retrofitting modules, has trained 315 people, 197 of whom have gone on to secure jobs in the industry.
Recruitment is already underway for the next course, for graduation mid-December, and demand for places is high.
Jim Hargis, Employment Services Manager at St Andrews Resource Centre, said:
“The success of the project is that it is constantly evolving to ensure it meets local employers’ needs.
“Not only is it a successful, low-cost solution that fulfils the need of taking people off the live register, it puts them into sustainable well-paid jobs in a sector that is crying out for workers.
“Furthermore, it now ensures that they have up to date retrofitting skills that contribute to the green economy. We are extremely proud that the project has built up an excellent reputation with employers in the sector and is now seen as a reliable source of trained labour.
“As employment demand in the sector evolves so too does the skillset we offer our trainees. The trainees go through three weeks of intensive training, which includes all basic operative training including, health and safety.
“They graduate on a Friday with their training and equipment fully ready to start work the following week and it has been a life changing experience for many of them.”
The intensive course is delivered over a 3-week period and equips participants, with a broad range of qualifications and experience, to work on construction sites. It incorporates two strands: A Construction Skills Certificate and a Green Homes (Retrofitting) Certificate.
Both strands incorporate a placement process and work individually with each candidate to gain employment in the construction sector. The goal of the programme is to start 60% of trainees in employment in the construction sector with the majority of trainees starting work within 4 weeks of completing the course. Some of the companies that hired graduates from the programme include John Sisk & Son, Careys Building & Civil Engineering, Walls Construction, Alufix and Clarke Concrete.
The curriculum is tailored to individual needs and capabilities. The range of modules include:
Also included is a jobs workshop and interview skills.
Recruitment is already underway for the next course, for graduation mid-December, and demand for places is high.
The origins of the programme came from a joint initiative between DSP, Eastside Docklands LES and DCC when there was a requirement to provide local labour to work on the incinerator site in Ringsend in 2016. St. Andrews was asked for its assistance in finding a way to deliver local workers onto that site.
On foot of this, a developing labour shortage in the construction industry was identified locally in the context of large-scale development in the Docklands area. Eastside and Docklands Local Employment Service (LES), which is funded by the DSP, recognised an opportunity for long term unemployed people to benefit from increased employment in the construction sector. They identified a skills gap among long-term unemployed people precluding them from taking up employment in this rising sector and developed a pilot programme in response.
The project initially received support from Dublin Docklands and Dublin City Council. Eastside and Docklands LES approached the Department for funding to support continuation of the training course under the Activation and Family Support Programme.
The Government is providing €250,755 in funding to the project during 2021. This has allowed for the successful piloting of a retrofitting skills course as an additional strand of provision.
The catchment area for this project was originally the Dublin Docklands area as described in the Docklands Strategic Development Zone, but as the project has progressed client self-referrals have come from a wider geographic area and it has been agreed that the area from which participants come from could widen.
When Dublin City Council (DCC) and the Department of Housing began funding for the project in January 2019 the selection area was widened again to include all the DCC area. However, the project reports that they have had referrals from outside that area and they have accepted them on the basis that they are also unemployed.