National Internship Scheme Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 November 2013

Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Questions (300, 303, 304, 305, 364)

Richard Boyd Barrett

Question:

300. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide a list of schools currently utilising the JobBridge scheme to employ interns in a teaching capacity. [48862/13]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Question:

303. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who fail to complete JobBridge internships; the number who cease an internship to take up employment; the number who leave for other reasons. [48927/13]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Question:

304. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of companies or employers that have been blacklisted from the JobBridge scheme. [48928/13]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Question:

305. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of occasions on which the whistleblowing feature of the JobBridge scheme has been invoked; the number of complaints that have been made to the national call centre alleging breaches or abuses of the JobBridge programme; the number of these complaints that relate to displacement, poor quality internships or other breaches of the programme. [48929/13]

Gerald Nash

Question:

364. Deputy Gerald Nash asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who have participated in the JobBridge internship programme to date broken down by county; the number who have progressed to paid employment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49563/13]

Written answers

Minister for Social Protection

I propose to take Questions Nos. 300, 303 to 305, inclusive, and 364 together.

The JobBridge Scheme was launched on 1st July 2011. A total of 23,235 placements have commenced to-date. Please see Table 1 for a breakdown by county. The evaluation report conducted by Indecon Economic Consultants found that 61% of all participants progressed into paid employment within 5 months of completing their internship. This is one of the best progression outcomes in Europe for work placement schemes.

While 47% of placements are completed in full, 53% of placements finish early. According to the Indecon evaluation report, the main reason cited by participants for early completion (according to 63.1% of participants) was that they secured employment while 32.7% of participants cited dissatisfaction with their placement as the reason for early completion. The progression outcomes into employment for early finishers are very encouraging. However, in order to address the dissatisfaction levels, I have extended the number of placements available on the Scheme and increased the maximum cumulative duration of internships. This measure has been introduced to give jobseekers that are dissatisfied with their choice of internship more flexibility in finding a suitable alternative placement. I have also increased the number of on-site monitoring visits.

The Department is not in a position to release the names of schools currently participating in the Scheme. However, I can advise the Deputy that while there are currently over 6,300 jobseekers participating on the Scheme, only 22 placements are being undertaken in a teaching capacity.

Over 10,000 companies have participated in the Scheme, of which, 31 companies have been disqualified from participating due to breaches of the Scheme. The over-whelming majority of companies are abiding by the terms and conditions of the Scheme.

The total number of JobBridge complaints received by the Department since the scheme commenced in July 2011 is 313. These complaints relate primarily to the following areas: - Standard Agreement not completed/adhered to; - Inadequate mentoring/support; - Inadequate training and development; - Displacement related issues; - Poor quality advertisements; - Intern working excessive hours; - Non-compliance with Scheme criteria.

All such complaints are fully investigated. In addition, my Department has conducted over 3,700 monitoring visits to-date. Encouragingly, 98% of these visits are satisfactory. Remedial action is taken in all cases of non-compliance.

Table 1: Breakdown By County

County	Finished	Current	Total
DUBLIN	5848	1998	7846
CORK	1638	566	2204
GALWAY	1116	381	1497
LIMERICK	838	360	1198
WATERFORD	582	209	791
DONEGAL	543	233	776
KILDARE	566	210	776
TIPPERARY	522	214	736
KERRY	476	200	676
WEXFORD	497	178	675
MAYO	381	198	579
LOUTH	408	165	573
WESTMEATH	399	147	546
MEATH	366	161	527
CLARE	355	159	514
WICKLOW	379	104	483
SLIGO	306	136	442
MONAGHAN	261	135	396
KILKENNY	255	81	336
LAOIS	231	92	323
CARLOW	220	86	306
CAVAN	207	99	306
OFFALY	197	81	278
ROSCOMMON	116	59	175
LONGFORD	132	38	170
LEITRIM	75	31	106
Grand Total	16,914	6,321	23,235