Helping the unemployed make the step into work

Employment Minister Sir Reg Empey today launched a new initiative aimed at helping people into work.

Steps to Work, the Department for Employment and Learning’s new adult return to work provision, is designed to ensure that employment opportunities become a reality for people who have been out of the labour market and who wish to return to work. Since April 2007 it has been piloted in four areas across Northern Ireland, with approximately 40% of those leaving the pilot having gained employment.

The minister recently visited Medicare, an employer who has already recruited staff under the Steps to Work initiative. After the visit Sir Reg said: “In seeking to address current high levels of economic inactivity and in looking towards the future requirements of local employers, my department recognises that there is a clear need to encourage more people to become 'active members' of the workforce.

“Steps to Work is therefore a significant initiative and one that addresses the very real difficulties faced by many of those who are unemployed or economically inactive by helping to improve their prospects of gaining and sustaining employment. It also provides employers, such as Medicare, with access to a wider pool of suitable labour with the right attitude to meet their recruitment needs.”

Steps to Work now extends the department’s employment and training provision to those who previously did not have access to such assistance. This includes anyone in receipt of Income Support, Incapacity Benefit or Jobseeker’s Allowance as well as those who are currently not working and not in receipt of any benefit.

Notes to Editors:

1. From 29 September 2008 Steps to Work (StW) will introduce a more flexible approach to better target individuals’ barriers to employment and help them find work.
2. StW has been designed to help address the high level of economic inactivity by encouraging more people to become ’active members’ of the workforce and to deal with the many more challenges individuals face in finding employment.
3. StW builds on the main New Deal programmes which have been the main plank of the department’s return to work provision for the last ten years. New Deal proved to be very successful in helping to return a significant number of benefit claimants back into work. The New Deal programmes have assisted in reducing long-term unemployment by 52% since their introduction.
4. A key feature of Steps to Work is the personalised support and guidance provided by the department’s specialist trained advisers.
5. Media queries to the Department for Employment and Learning Press Office on 028 9025 7872. Out of hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via paper number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.