Community Employment (CE)

The Community Employment (CE) programme is designed to help people who are long-term unemployed (or otherwise disadvantaged) to get back to work by offering part-time and temporary work placements in local communities.

South West Mayo Development Company sponsors two Community Employment (CE) schemes on behalf of the Department of Social Protection (DSP) in south and west Mayo as follows:

South Mayo Community Employment Scheme
West Mayo Community Employment Scheme

We have 25 people on each scheme who work across 21 community voluntary organisations.

If you are unemployed and would like to check your eligibility for community employment, contact your Local Employment Service office or see the most up-to-date information here: https://www.gov.ie/en/service/412714-community-employment-programme/

Payments to participants are made in the form of a wage. Your wage rates are determined by your underlying social welfare entitlement.

We have an annual training budget aimed at upskilling CE participants to return to the workforce. All courses are fully accredited, and a list of courses can be found on www.etbi.ie.

You can find CE work opportunities on www.jobsireland.ie.

Community Employment participants help local communities with vital social and community services that would otherwise be unaffordable. These include, but are not limited to:

Childcare
Managing and maintaining sports and recreational facilities
Administration support to charitable organisations
Resource and environmental workers
Newsreaders and arts workers

If you are a community voluntary organisation interested in Community Employment support, please contact one of our Supervisors to see how you can access this support.

SWMDC implements the Community Employment programme in south and west Mayo. This includes the towns of Claremorris, Ballinrobe, Castlebar and Westport.

For more information, please contact:

South Mayo CE	Declan Walsh	CE Supervisor	dwalsh@southmayo.com	087 223 6905
West Mayo CE	Ann Connor	CE Supervisor	aconnor@southmayo.com	087 223 6906
West Mayo CE	Norah Campbell	Assistant CE Supervisor	ncampbell@southmayo.com	087 131 5082

Who is eligible for the Community Employment Programme?

In general, you must be over 21 years old and in receipt of a social welfare payment for at least 12 months. A new pilot scheme allows a percentage of participants who are over 62 years of age to stay on the scheme until retirement age. We have two substances abuse places available on our schemes. If you are unemployed and would like to check your eligibility, contact your Local Employment Service office or see the most up-to-date information here:
https://www.gov.ie/en/service/412714-community-employment-programme/