Speaking at the FETAC awards ceremony in Listowel Community College, Co. Kerry, Deputy Joan Burton outlined highlighted 5 key proposals from Labour’s jobs strategy.

“By next year, half a million people will be on the dole. The Fianna Fáil government appears to have thrown in the towel in jobs and are resigned to 75,000 job losses in 2010. This is the fastest rise in unemployment since records began.

“In Listowel alone, the number on the dole has tripled in two years. One in five of these are under 25.

“With so many talented young people unable to find gainful employment, a return to mass unemployment now seems inevitable if the government don’t get serious about jobs. The exodus has already begun.

“Unemployment is a crisis for individuals and households, particularly in light of high levels of personal debt accumulated over the housing boom. But high unemployment also places a major burden on the public finances. For every person made unemployed, the Exchequer loses at least €20,000 a year in social welfare payments and tax forgone.

“In the 21st century, a skilled population is the most important natural resource a country can possess. This is particularly true for a small, open economy like Ireland. Ireland’s competitive advantage depends on both its ability to foster new industries, and in the attraction of a skilled workforce to foreign investors.

“We have to give people the skills they need for the jobs they want.

“Labour’s jobs strategy is two-pronged: stimulate job creation in the short term, and create the conditions for new, sustainable job creation in the medium to long-term by up-skilling our workforce.

“Labour proposes:

An ‘Earn & Learn’ scheme that that enables people to formally combine work and education and training. If a company needs to put its employees on, for example, a three day week, it should be possible to arrange education or training for the remaining two days.

Tax breaks for employers who take people off the dole. A PRSI exemption scheme should be put in place that would exempt employers from paying employer’s PRSI for 18 months, where they employ a person who has been unemployed for more than 6 months, and where they demonstrate clearly that they are creating a new job.

Lifting the cap on the number of places in VEC Colleges of Further Education. The number of VEC places nationwide is capped at just over 30,000, despite consistently higher demand. We have the further education colleges; a wide variety of training options already on offer; and staff experienced in adult education – these existing resources would just need to be expanded.

A new National Development Plan prioritizing job-intensive projects. With tender prices falling up to 30% in some sectors, it is possible to do more with less. We need an accelerated school building and road improvement programme.

A Graduate & Apprentice Internship Programme. New third level graduates, and newly-qualified apprentices, are finding it particularly difficult to get a first job. Without a job, they find themselves caught in a cycle of not enough experience to get work, and not enough work to get experience. There is a considerable body of evidence to suggest that periods of unemployment early in a person’s life affects their earning potential for years to follow. A graduate and apprentice placement scheme would bridge this gap, giving first-time jobseekers an opportunity to develop their skills, and enhancing their job prospects.