Adult Apprenticeships announcement woefully inadequate
Responding to the statement by the Minister for Employment and Learning regarding Adult Apprenticeships, Mr McCrea (Chair for the Committee for Employment and Learning) said:
“The measures announced are disappointingly limited. Whilst better than nothing they fail to address the relentless rise in unemployment. In my constituency alone, there were 527 new Jobseekers’ Allowance claimants last month. Such people need help, hope and the opportunity to retrain.”
“We need a determined effort by the Minister and the Executive to give those who have lost their jobs with the opportunity to reenter the job market. Of course budgets are tight but creative, well managed initiatives scaled to meet the demand must be found.”
Unemployment has been rising month on month with the current level of unemployment currently at 60,400. The Executive has yet to produce a coherent strategy for dealing with this matter. DEL budgets are strained as a direct impact of the political decision to retain tuition fees at the current level.
“The Executive must address the situation collectively, and the Minister should not have to make a decision between maintaining tuition fees, reducing Adult Apprenticeships and underfunding Employment Services.”
Comments
Leave a Reply
