IFI peace programme money well spent?

The programme is funded by the International Fund for Ireland and is jointly run by the Department of Education and Learning from Northern Ireland, and FAS from the Republic of Ireland. This also makes the programme a cross community or cross border project as the applicants are selected equally from both areas.

The funders pay for applicants' flights and accomodation for the two months of their being away, and an estimated 4000 is invested in each applicant and over the years of the programme it is thought that just over seventy per cent of the participants have gone into mainstream employment or further education that they feel they most probably would not have been successful in getting, had they not taken part in the Wider Horizons Programme.

These figures suggest that the programme is indeed very successful and highly beneficial for young people, especially now with the lack of availability of work in the city for people with little or no experience.

The aim of the programme is to benefit young people in their hunt for employment. The course lasts a total of twenty weeks on average and is broken up into three different stages.

The first stage is the pre-departure stage where the young people undergo a series of training courses like health and safety in the work place and basic first aid as well as mutual understanding, conflict resolution, team building and personal development. The participants also spend six of these weeks in a work placement of their choice, considering the chosen employer is willing to offer them help. This allows the person to get a reference from an employer, as well as gainning some relevant experience in the area of work that they are interested in.

The second stage of the programme is the overseas stage. This means that the participants are sent to either Canada, a U.S state, Cyprus, Spain or South Africa. The young people will get eight weeks' work experience in the country that they are sent to and also continue in their mutual understanding training as well as their personal development training.

After the two months abroad, the third stage commences. This consists of the participants completing their qualification which is usually a Euro Pass that is recognised in different countries, should the holder decide to seek work in another country. The participants will also develop their job search skills and/or progress into further training or education courses.

The next group of twenty participants are due to leave for Montreal, Canada on October 8 of this year.