Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 January 2014
85. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Social Protection her views on the advertising of jobs under the JobBridge scheme whose minimum criteria include the attainment of a PhD; if this is in keeping with the spirit of the scheme; her plans to review such activities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4485/14]
View answerJobBridge is giving opportunities to jobseekers across the spectrum of qualifications. Participation on the scheme is voluntary. Given the numbers of unemployed jobseekers holding graduate and post-graduate qualifications, it is obviously necessary that JobBridge is in a position to offer them an internship that reflects their abilities, aspirations and qualifications. In this regard a previous criticism directed at the Department was that the terms of its jobseeker payments prevented jobseekers, including graduate jobseekers, from taking up internship opportunities as a route into employment. JobBridge addresses this issue and I am satisfied that it is appropriate to do so.
The Department has a number of controls in place to prevent abuse of the scheme. These include requirements on host organisations to provide a mentor to the intern, to sign and operate a standard agreement, to submit regular monitoring reports to the Department and to co-operate with random monitoring visits. Over 4,400 monitoring visits have been conducted to date, 98% of which were found to be satisfactory. There are also limits placed on the number of internships that can be offered by any one organisation related to the number of staff employed by the company and there are restrictions on the repeat or sequential use of internships. I am satisfied based on the Department’s own monitoring visits and the report of the independent evaluation that these controls are working effectively.
