Press release
Minister Stanton attends EPIC programme 10 year celebration
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Published on
Last updated on
On Wednesday 5 December 2018, Minister of State David Stanton TD, spoke at the EPIC 10 year Celebration and Graduation event. The event celebrated the EPIC programme’s support migrants for the last 10 years in partnership with Government, EU European Social Fund, businesses and NGOs.
Employment for Peoples from Immigrant Communities (“EPIC”) is a programme run by Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI), which is funded by the European Union European Social Fund (ESF) and the Government of Ireland.
EPIC provides pre-employment training and one to one support for unemployed vulnerable migrants, including refugees, to commence employment, learning and training. In addition, established business supports add value to the programme, providing IT training, mock interviews, CV preparation, mentoring, peer talks, work place visits, workshops and work placements. Workplace language training is provided and, where appropriate, clients are referred to other services.
Since 2008, EPIC has supported more than 3,200 migrants, representing over 100 nationalities. Of these, more than 68% have been progressed to employment (1,378), internships/training/education (742) and volunteer roles (66).
In 2017, the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration granted €9.7 million to fund 40 national and 131 regional projects to support integration over the next three to four years with both EU and Irish Government funding.
Projects are aimed at promoting integration, combating racism and xenophobia, and increasing mutual understanding between migrants and their host communities. So far in 2018, a further €500,000 has been distributed across 115 projects nationwide under this year’s round of the Communities Integration Fund.