As at 20th February, 2014, 26,186 internship placements have commenced to date with 6,507 participants currently undertaking internships and over 1,700 internship posts available on the JobBridge website. The purpose of JobBridge is to provide jobseekers with the opportunity to gain the workplace experience which will equip them to compete for and secure paid employment. As the Deputy will be aware many jobseekers, and in particular young jobseekers, find themselves in something of a catch-22 situation. They cannot secure employment without recent employment experience but they cannot secure experience without employment. As independent research and personal testimony from many interns shows, JobBridge is very effective at breaking this vicious circle. Interns develop skills and gain experience both key attributes on any CV. In addition, JobBridge interns also receive a top-up on their jobseeker payment of €50 per week and have the security of working within a State-sponsored internship structure. This structure ensures a standard internship agreement, a maximum working hours limit, a requirement for coaching and mentoring of the interns, regular reporting from the host organisation and random inspections by officials of my Department. This is much preferable to the uncontrolled, ‘free market’ internships which operated in many employment sectors in Ireland and overseas and whose use was increasing prior to the introduction of JobBridge.
I am satisfied therefore that internships of the type referred to in the Deputy’s question are an appropriate form of employment support and they will continue to be supported by the Department. There have been 21 placements in the first organisation mentioned and 2 placements in the second organisation since JobBridge commenced. There are no JobBridge positions currently advertised for either organisation.
