On June 18th- 19th AWB partners held the last peer review of the project, dedicated to the study of local policies promoting employment of long-term unemployed aged 50 and above, in the city of Dublin.
Dublin Employment Pact organized a comprehensive peer review that gave AWB partners from the cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Tampere, Rome, and Santander, an opportunity to clearly picture how employment policies are developed in Ireland.
The session was divided into two phases; initially the Irish government, represented by the Department of Social Protection gave an overview of the unemployment situation in Ireland, with a 14% unemployment rate. Then, they described the Irish Government Activation Policy including their pathways to work and the Public Employment Service role.
During the second phase the focus was on the local employment strategies delivered by the Local Employment Services (LES), individual organizations funded by the state partners of the Local Development Company. The local actors gave an insight of the Ballyfermont Local Employment Service, a specialist adult guidance service with the aim to help jobseekers back into employment, training and education. The local strategies provide individualized services to specific target groups, long-term unemployed and people at disadvantage. They work on a variety of programs involving career guidance, mediation, gateway service, training courses, education and employment grants, link to employers, community development activities…
Dublin peer review closes the research & development work of AWB European project. The findings and information generated from the study of Dublin, Santander, Berlin, Hamburg, and Graz local models will allow AWB partners developing a coherent strategy for setting up future projects for the integration of elder people into sustainable employment.
