The former director of corporate services at Fás, Greg Craig, has submitted a proposal to the Government for the outsourcing of State labour activation services.

Mr Craig has helped design an initiative called Flourish, which he says would for the first time ensure that training programmes for the unemployed were designed with particular jobs in mind.

He says the idea is supported by 30 major employers including EA Games, Sky and Dell and is particularly targeted at long-term unemployed.

Mr Craig, who set himself up as a sole trader involved mainly in seeking professional employees for work in Canada, has designed the project in partnership with Paramount HR in Sandyford, Dublin, and Nubie, the group involved in providing software for business start-ups.

Decision awaited
A decision as to whether the idea might be the subject of a pilot programme is being awaited. Mr Craig said the troika wants the State to outsource some of its labour activation work, a move it believes could help combat unemployment and contribute to reducing the cost of such services.

The proposed structure for the scheme submitted by Mr Craig would see it being run by a three-person committee answering to a senior political figure and possibly even Taoiseach Enda Kenny. The scheme would be a not-for-profit one and Mr Craig said he was not involved for personal gain.

“There is a lot of churning going on in the jobs market, with young people leaving for new jobs for as little as €20 more,” he said. A key element of the Flourish proposal would be the targeting of people who were long-term unemployed, along with their involvement in transition programmes aimed towards particular jobs.

People would be provided with online CVs and an email address, and their skills and experience would be matched to jobs that were available. The proposal also involves a national roadshow aimed at matching the unemployed to available opportunities.

He said the companies that he has been in contact with have more than 4,000 positions they want to fill, with the dominant areas being contact centres, telcoms and healthcare. The programme would cost the State approximately €6,000 per unemployed person – this has to be seen in the light of the significant cost to the State of the person remaining unemployed.

Pilot programme
The scheme would see the Department of Social Protection and Flourish agree referrals of unemployed people based on a national pilot of 10,000 people. Flourish would conduct local job vacancy assessments and appoint and train career coaches, and place and mentor people who would be given job placements and opportunities.

Any such development would be ironic given Mr Craig's background as corporate affairs director working alongside the former director general of Fás, Roddy Molloy.

Past controversy
Controversy over how the agency was run under Mr Molloy's reign led to the departure of both men from the authority and the Government decision to transform it into a new entity to be called Solas.

During the boom years, Mr Craig was involved in organising jobs fairs in such places as Cape Town, Berlin, Prague, London and New York as part of the then government’s efforts to attract foreign workers to Ireland.