ICONI Software helps tackle youth unemployment
Belfast-based software development company ICONI specialises in employability software, helping jobless people back into work. Managing Director Liam Jordan discusses how management information systems can support those tackling youth unemployment.
With the latest government figures indicating that more than 19% of 18-24 year olds in Northern Ireland are unemployed, a lot of work still needs to be done to tackle the issue of youth unemployment here.
Organisations tasked with helping young people to get into sustainable employment need to ensure that they have the relevant support infrastructure in place to make this happen. ICONI supports thousands of employability professionals throughout the UK with our innovative employability software. We have seen first-hand how an effective employability Management Information System (MIS) can help organisations to become more efficient in the delivery of high quality, employment related services and support to their clients.
Having previously secured a local contract with Opportunity Youth, ICONI has recently been appointed to deliver and support a unique web-based client MIS to assist London-based charity Careers Development Group (CDG) in delivering employment support services to young people across South London. CDG will be working with almost 4,000 young Londoners aged between 18 and 24 through their innovative project, known as ‘Day One Support for Young People Trailblazer’. This is a joint pilot between the Mayor of London and the Department for Work and Pensions.
The aim of the project is to improve the prospects of young people with little to no work history and to get them into suitable employment as quickly as possible without compromising on the quality of support they receive.
We all know how technology can help organisations to engage and connect with young people more effectively. Young people regularly use online technology to communicate via a range of devices including PCs, tablets and smartphones. Therefore, it is important to ensure that your MIS has the functionality to communicate with these clients across these platforms. This may seem like common sense, but the key is to integrate the trigger points of communication within the correct stages of your organisation’s support procedures. Utilising technology like this to increase the speed of operational delivery can be a big advantage for employment support organisations, boosting their performance.
The CDG project requires an extremely quick turnaround time as their young clients are required to be on placement within 48 hours of referral. We therefore needed to develop an MIS that operated in real-time, ensured transparency and would increase CDG’s effectiveness in providing employment opportunities for their clients.
An effective MIS will enable you to save time and increase efficiency by allowing you to upload ‘proof of signature’ documents so they are readily available for auditors, in addition to case notes which are securely entered and tracked against each individual user. Reducing such paper-based administrative overheads has a direct and positive impact on the individuals being supported, as the time saved can be used in personalising a client’s support services.
When it comes to reporting on activity and the young person’s progress it is critical that a client adviser can quickly chart the individual’s journey through all stages of support. Anne-Marie McClure, CEO of Opportunity Youth, told us that a clear benefit of their MIS is that it helps them to chart a young person’s personal journey, their progress and areas for improvement and that it is an invaluable tool in helping them to identify how their range of innovative programmes can best meet the needs of their clients.
ICONI is already working with a wide range of organisations in the employment-related services sector across the UK, including a number of organisations in Northern Ireland. We will take every opportunity to use our expertise to support more local employment related services providers in tackling youth unemployment here.
ICONI Software Ltd
Unit 21 Ormeau Business Park
8 Cromac Avenue Belfast, BT7 2JA
Tel: +44 (0)28 9031 9300
Email: solutions@iconi.co.uk
Web: www.iconi.co.uk
