The DRWA were told today that funding to provide training and internship programmes for the Ex Dell & Associated Company Workers has been refused EGF funding.
The DRWA (Dell Redundant Workers Association) and ICBE (Irish Centre for Business Excellence) have been working closely since August of this year to develop a training programme designed to produce effective outcomes for EGF clients. This programme would have consisted of a Begin Again Internship pathway for up to 400 Redundant Dell workers who are still trying to find jobs.
A detailed proposal was presented to the EGF steering committee on the 30th September for consideration. However Today - 54 days later- funding has finally been denied based on the following reasoning;
- FÁS already provides this service (Despite the fact that everyone knows FÁS is being disbanded.)
- There is insufficient funding available to finance programme. - Despite the fact that there is a current surplus of €10,000,000 ready to be returned to Europe and the Irish Government can re-allocate 20% of this funding without referring back to Brussels.
- The funding for this programme has been refused by the Department of Education and Skills who are the administrative authority for the Dell European Globalisation Fund in Ireland. Rather than take a stance that provides solutions for unemployed Irish workers the DES(The Department of Education & Science) has chosen to sluggishly apply their own complex, draconian and outdated bureaucratic guidelines.
- FÁS have previously advised they have provided 2400 occupational guidance sessions at a cost of € 100 per person. The Feedback we have received from our members is that these "Occupational Guidance Sessions" provided by FÁS consisted of being made to sign a FÁS registration form and getting FÁS courses pamphlets.
Despite this claim the truth is that FÁS have to date provided only 110 internship programmes. FÁS now state that no more INTERNSHIPS will be available under EGF funding as they have spent their EGF allocated budget.
Even though the EGF submission to Europe provided 200 Internship programmes these places have not been provided by FÁS. Rather than meet their target of 200 Internship programmes FÁS chose to provide 127 one year CE schemes that had already been budgeted instead of fulfilling their obligation and they had the affront to send the bill to the EGF!
The DRWA conducted a survey with our membership on the four proposals presented at the last steering Committee meeting held on 30th September.
1. Proposal to run Process Management / Sales and Marketing Management course for EGF clients including work experience with company. (University Limerick )
2. Proposal to run Franchise Enterprise Development course for EGF clients. (LIT)
3. Proposal to run Digital Media / Computing /Web Development Course for EGF Clients through. (Tipperary Institute)
4. Proposal Begin again Programme. (ICBE/DRWA)
244 of our members where contacted and asked, if given a choice which course would they prefer to partake in.
University of Limerick = 39
which equates to 16%
Limerick Institute of Technology = 17
which equates to 7%
Tipperary Institute of Technology = 1
which equates to 0%
Irish Centre for Business Excellence = 187
which equates to 77%
In the current bail-out climate it is staggering that more than €10,000,000 (Yes! TEN MILLION!) Will be returned unspent to Brussels. The DES civil servants in Dublin need to wake up and start to use some basic common sense for once. They need to use the existing EGF rules to approve funding for these badly needed courses and stop denying unemployed Irish workers their right to flexibility and freedom of choice and initiatives that might help them get back to work!
