BITCI Calls for National Immigrant Employment Programme in Response to ESRI Report
BITCI Calls for National Immigrant Employment Programme in Response to ESRI Report
16th January 2013: EPIC (Employment for People from Immigrant Communities) is calling for the national roll out of its programme in response to statistics released today by the ESRI and the Equality Authority. The ESRI report showed that immigrants did not fare as well on average as Irish nationals in the Irish labour market in 2010, with the results varying according to nationality and ethnicity. Our EPIC programme assists immigrants from over 90 different nationalities to gain employment in Ireland by providing training including an IT course, mentoring/mock interview skills, CV writing and an English language course along with social support.
Since the programme was founded six years ago 1,100 people have engaged with the service. To date, 1,073 placements were made, 582 jobs were filled, 381 were placed on courses and 110 in volunteering placements to gain work place experience. However, the programme currently only services the Dublin region.
“The Department of Justice set up the EPIC programme over six years ago in response to a growing immigrant population and to encourage diversity and inclusion. The programme has experienced great success to date however, today, we would like to make the call for this programme to be expanded to service other highly populated centres within Ireland so that this kind of support can be given to all immigrants” said Tina Roche, CEO, Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI).
Almost 60% of the people who attend the EPIC programme have at a minimum a University degree with 14% of these having some form of additional postgraduate qualification. Our programme targets immigrants that experience difficulties accessing appropriate employment and supports them in the process by providing individual guidance, specialised training and personal development opportunities.
The EPIC programme is funded by the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration (formerly the Office of the Minister for Integration) under the Department of Justice and Equality and co-financed under the European Social Fund Human Capital Operational Programme 2007-2013. BT, CPL, Ericsson, Matheson & Bank of Ireland are key business partners for this initiative. EPIC also works in cooperation with Cairde, Citizens Information Service, Dublin City North Volunteer Centre, The Equality Authority and the INOU.
