careers advice for young unemployed

My partner is 24 and has been unemployed for nearly two years. He has no qualifications except a low Leaving Cert and some odd jobs in the service sector. He wants to work but lacks confidence and this has got worse as time has gone on. He has no ideas on what he wants to do and no starting point on which to base a course of training. It is almost too easy for him to stay on welfare, as jobs are scarce and badly paid and his cv is practically empty.

My question is, what services do the Dept of Social, Community and Family Affairs provide for young people? Is there any non-judgemental careers advice for individuals who want to work but literaly dont know where to start?

I tried to ring the Dept to ask this but the phone line always rings out and I'm afraid the website isn't telling me what I need to know.

You local VEC will have a qualified Career Guidance Counsellor who will offer free appointments. www.ivea.ie to find your local one.

Register with FAS?

Talk to a FAS officer about doing a FAS course ?

Perhaps he could consider doing some voluntary work to gain experience in whatever area he is interested in. Would look good on his CV.

There are such long waiting lists for the FAS courses and they are subject to so many changes at the moment that the Career Guidance Counsellor seems like the better option.

I work in the vocational education sector and it sounds like that would be his avenue now. It would let him have a go at education, training, skill development without putting huge new academic pressure on him. Most FETAC Level 5 courses are very manageable for people who are willing to consistently work at them and just take the one academic year and then he might have the option of higher training in college or a FETAC Level 6 in some areas.

So the next step would be to figure out some areas of interest and aptitude for him and check out what is on offer locally. You can look up this on www.qualifax.ie.

You're right it sounds like he's in a comfort zone at the moment, not exactly happy doing nothing but at least he's used to what to have to do week in week out and there are no demands on him. The thing to try and get his head around is that its one thing to be unqualified and unemployed now when its the norm, but he needs to be getting ready to take the opportunities that will arise when the worst of the recession is over, there are plenty more people who are preparing themselves and he will be competing with them.

Re: Is there any non-judgemental careers advice for individuals who want to work but literaly dont know where to start?

The best place to start (if using the web is an option) is on the careersportal website (www.careersportal.ie). This is an freely available, independent, non-judgemental website with loads of things to do and research. He could do a career interest test, match the results to careers and courses, get general advice on job seeking, and watch videos of Irish people at work.

It's important that he is motivated, so how you make the recommendation will matter. There is a transferrable skills exercise on the site also - you can print off a copy and hand it to him to complete - it might start the ball rolling.

He has a number of options. First, the DSFA would only come into play in terms of activation measures like Back to Education Allowance where recipients after the qualifying period can go back to college/university and retain their welfare payments. Back to Work Allowance is an activation measure where new employees are entitled to retain 75% of their welfare payments in year one, 50% in year two and 25% in year 3 in addition to their wage. They must work a minimum of 20 hours and the job must be for more than a year. Other options are CE projects run in local communities - this gives participants the experience of work and also provides them with personal development plans and opportunities for courses. Alternatively, he could go to the Local Employment Services run by the Partnerships. They have advisors who can talk with clients and also have jobs club giving them the experience of prep for making applications, interviews etc. It would also give him the opportunity to meet and learn from other people who are in similar circumstances.