Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 April 2011
212 Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding the work placement programme (details supplied) and the internship development programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6775/11]
View answerThe Internship Development Programme aims to provide those who are at least three months unemployed with a 12 month work placement in a host organisation in the private or community and voluntary sectors, while simultaneously offering them the opportunity to avail of education/training that is accredited/aligned to the National Framework of Qualifications. This programme aims to enable the unemployed maintain their links with the labour market while also facilitating their upskilling and reskilling, thereby improving their employability. Whilst on the work placement element of the internship, interns will receive an ‘upskilling bonus' in addition to their social welfare entitlements.
State support for an initial 5,000 internship places on the programme has been approved, however, the number of places on the programme is entirely dependant on the level of take up by participating organisations. A call for Expressions of Interest to organisations that may be interested in providing internship opportunities to the unemployed was issued by FÁS Employment Services recently. The purpose of this call is to assess the number of internship opportunities and the number of host organisations who wish to participate in the Internship Development Programme. To date over 150 organisations have expressed their interest in participating in the programme. It is expected that the programme will be operational in the near future.
The Work Placement Programme was established to provide an opportunity for people who are unemployed to take up voluntary, unpaid work experience placements within companies. The rationale for the Programme is to keep people as close to the labour market as possible during a time of job shortages and increased competition for jobs. In terms of outcomes from the programme, FÁS have indicative statistics which were gathered from a survey of 1,600 WPP participants in November 2010 who were either on a WPP Placement or had left the programme. Of the 1,600 surveyed, 628 people responded. Of the 628 that responded 133 respondents left early because: 25% of those who responded got a job with the WPP provider and 42% of respondents left their WPP Placement as they got another job elsewhere.
The Work Placement Programme provides up to 9 months work experience to unemployed individuals, including unemployed graduates. The programme is targeted at both graduates and non-graduates. For graduates the programme provides an opportunity for them to apply the skills learned in college in a work place setting, thus adding to their CV and making them more employable. For graduates and non-graduates alike, the programme also provides an opportunity to keep their skills up-to-date and to network so that they can hear about jobs that come up, and gain work experience in new sectors/areas of work. While the above statistics are for a small sample of those who have participated on the WPP, it does demonstrate that the programme does help unemployed people gain work experience and find employment.
