Your Local Area Employment Service journey starts here
We deliver Local Area Employment Services (LAES) in Longford and Westmeath.
LAES provides job seekers with the financial assistance and support needed to establish financial independence, whether that be fulltime employment or establishing a business.
Your Local Area Employment Service is an employment support service provided under contract to the Department of Social Protection.
Contact us about this service
Welcome to the LAES service
As a jobseeker, receiving a jobseeker’s payment from Intreo, you would have been referred to this service to access support to find employment or establish your own business.
Reach your full potential
Whatever your career goals, our employment service provides you with the opportunity to realise your full potential. We can provide the training and support you need to begin the journey towards achieving your goals.
What will the LAES Service do for you?
- Working with you on an individual basis over a period of 12 months.
- Agreeing a personal progression plan (PPP) with you (a set of agreed tasks and actions to help you get full time employment).
- Identifying training and upskilling opportunities that will enhance your chances of finding employment; and
- Putting you in touch with employers who have ideal vacancies and positions.
- A progress review since their last engagement with the service.
- Support to build upon the competencies and skills developed during their previous period of engagement.
- A review of the identified barriers to employment and an action plan to overcome these.
- Further training opportunities through the LAES Service.
How we’ll help you
Our LAES will provide high-quality, personalised service to support you to achieve your goals, giving you the best possible chance of entering and sustaining employment.
- Your nearest centre will be a normal journey time of no more than 60 minutes driving or by public transport.
- Our opening hours are 8.30am–5pm (Monday to Friday). We also offer flexible support outside of these times.
- You will have 24/7 access to our online learning and training modules using our Abintegro portal.
- In our centres, you will have access to IT facilities for job searching. We will provide any necessary training to help you use these facilities effectively.
Throughout the programme, you will receive dedicated support from your individual, named expert Caseworker. You will benefit from:
- A one-to-one, face-to-face meeting with your caseworker within 20 working days of your referral.
- An initial assessment, where you will complete a guided self-assessment questionnaire. Your answers will help us get to know you and enable us to support you more effectively.
- Creating a Personal Progression Plan (PPP) with your caseworker, who will assess your skills, experience, needs and work goals. Your PPP will be based your unique support needs and employment goals, as well as the outcomes from your guided self-assessment questionnaire, and form your activity programme, which will include a schedule of job-focused targets.
- Formal reviews meetings with your caseworkers (every 12 weeks). Reviews will enable us to work with you to update the PPP as your support needs and circumstances change.
We are here to support you as much as you need throughout the programme and will invite you to attend informal catch ups each month. These can be done more flexibly to suit your preferences – for example, by visiting us in your local centre or remotely via, telephone, email, or Teams.
Your caseworker will work with you through our core range to support you to understand the local job market and identify the most suitable roles. This support will include:
- Support and training to use various job search platforms effectively.
- Job coaching, job brokering services, and job matching (using our live database of job vacancies).
- One-to-one support and group sessions to develop your digital skills.
- CV writing workshops and interview preparation.
- Our in-work Buddy Scheme and access to our helpline to support you to adapt effectively in employment.
- Working with you to build your Passport for Work, which will evidence your readiness for work; and
- Regular contact from your caseworker once you enter employment.
We will provide more tailored and targeted support to help you overcome any additional needs and barriers to employment. This support includes:
- Mentoring and wellbeing workshops.
- Health and disability support.
- Peer sessions and support programmes.
- Access to local services directories in our centres and signposting to specialist community organisations (in line with your needs).
- Signposting to external training and work experience programmes in your community; and
- Developing Into Work Plans to ensure you have personalised support, information, advice, and guidance to prepare you for returning to work and enable you to thrive in your new role.
At the end of the programme, you will receive your final PPP for Passport for Work. This will include a Moving on Plan, with links to further support, a reference letter, and details of any work experience, employment or training you have completed during the programme. If you have not moved into work by the end of the programme, you will also have a review with your caseworker.
You will have regular opportunities to provide feedback on the service you have received through periodic online surveys, focus groups, and informal discussions with staff in our centres. Outcomes and actions on any feedback will be communicated to you. Our Complaints Procedure is displayed in our centre and on our website and is included in your Welcome Pack. When we receive a written complaint, we will acknowledge this within three working days and communicate outcomes (in writing) within 15 working days.
To receive jobseekers’ payments from Intreo, you must meet the following conditions: 1 You must be available for and genuinely seeking full-time work. 2 You must endeavour to make full use of services and support that the DEASP provide for you in your search for full time work.
Our LAES providers operate under contract to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and must deliver the service in compliance with the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 and the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
The department is acting in line with Data Protection principles in sharing your data with them for the purpose of delivering an employment service to you.
You must engage with the LAES service – Failure to do so could result in a loss of your entitlement to a Job seekers payment.
You must inform your local Intreo of any change of circumstances in your household composition, your income, your employment status, your availability for work or your fitness to work. These could result in an increase or decrease in your jobseekers support.
We take the security of your personal information very seriously and in accordance with the Data Protection Acts 1988 – 2018, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We have implemented technical and organisational measures to protect this information at all times.
We may pass your employment related information on to legitimate companies in connection with our commitment to help you secure full-time employment.