I propose to take Questions Nos. 297 and 301 together.
JobBridge, the National Internship Scheme, came into operation on the 1st July 2011. The Scheme has made significant progress to-date. Currently over 5,600 internships have commenced to date with 4,170 internships currently in place and over 2,100 opportunities are currently advertised on www.jobbridge.ie. Our records indicate that a significant proportion of individuals have progressed into employment on completion of their internship placements. As the first internships did not commence until mid July it is too early to report on the number of interns who have completed their internship due to the inherent six or nine months duration of a JobBridge Internship. However, initial data (5th March 2012) provided by Host Organisations in relation to interns who have finished their internship indicates that 33% of finishers secured employment immediately on the conclusion of their internship. This data does not reflect those who subsequently secured employment and is based solely on the feedback from the Host Organisations. Further information on outcomes will be ascertained as a result of the forthcoming evaluation of JobBridge.
The Department of Social Protection has recently conducted a tendering process for a company to conduct and evaluate JobBridge. This Project will assess the design, delivery and impact of the JobBridge Scheme on the unemployed. It should also assist the Department in making further policy decisions on the benefit of work placement programmes in the overall context of the Government's activation policy, which is to engage with every unemployed individual to provide them with a pathway to employment and to prevent and reduce long term unemployment.
The evaluation should include the following key outcomes:
Socio economic profile of the participants on the Scheme;
Information on the host organisations that have used the Scheme including, size, sector, and reason for participating;
Details of the progression of those on the Scheme into education, training or job placement. In the case of job placement this should detail if the placement is with the same company, in the same sector and the sustainability of that placement;
Details of the nature of the work experience of the participants and a measurement of the relevance of that experience to the labour market and to progression into employment;
An assessment of the displacement effect of the Scheme;
An assessment of the level of deadweight in the Scheme;
Information on the satisfaction of participants with their experience of the Scheme;
Information on the satisfaction of host organisations with their experience of the Scheme;
An assessment of the process and procedures used by the Department in running the Scheme;
Recommendations on how the Scheme might be improved.
The selection process for the engagement of the successful vendor is currently being finalised. It is anticipated that the evaluation review will be completed by the first quarter 2013