MORE than 4,600 people could benefit through skills training and employability following the Executive’s announcement of a £200million Economy and Jobs initiative.
The new measures to support people, businesses and investment have been met with support by ministers.
First Minister Peter Robinson said: “I am pleased that we are able to announce this package which will provide a significant boost to the economy in Northern Ireland and provide employment, particularly for our young people and those who have been out of work for long periods.
“This initiative comes on top of the £26m in additional funding recently announced as part of Delivering Social Change ‘Signature Projects’ and again shows that by working together the Executive continues to deliver on our Programme for Government commitment to grow the economy and contribute to rising levels of employment by supporting the promotion of over 25,000 new jobs.”
The deputy First Minister said: “The Executive is responding flexibly to the needs of those hit hardest by the recession and taking action to ensure those out of work have access to the right training, skills and education opportunities. These employment measures are particularly focused on the needs of young people to help them get into work.
“The Executive is already committed to delivering over £5 billion of capital investment in the current budget period. To boost employment in the construction sector this package will deliver a range of new measures to improve our schools, roads and accelerate nearly £60m of capital projects.”
Ministers are taking action to ensure that those out of work have access to the right training, skills and education opportunities. They are particularly focused on the needs of young people and other disadvantaged groups.
An extra £5.7m of funding will go to the Tourism Development Scheme which could deliver total investment of over £27.5m, supporting over 450 jobs in the construction phase and creating or sustaining approximately a further 50 tourism jobs once complete.
Responding to the initiative, Minister for Employment and Learning, Stephen Farry said, “This will assist the Executive to build on the work of the economic strategy and specifically further support our employment programmes and initiatives and provide additional upskilling and reskilling opportunities through our further education colleges and universities.
“The series of measures approved by the Executive will help tackle the issue of our young people and those over 50, who are unemployed and need skills experience to help them move into work.”
“These measures will also ensure that skills development for economic growth is being supported at all levels through additional support for skills training at our FE Colleges and an increase in 500 higher education places and an additional 150 PhD places for priority skills areas for the NI economy.”