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JobBridge has provided 5,000 internships since its launch – Taoiseach

The government’s National Internship Scheme, launched last June, aims to give workplace experience to people on the live register.

27/02/12 2,240 Views 58 Comments
Enda Kenny and Joan Burton at the launch of JobBridge last year
Enda Kenny and Joan Burton at the launch of JobBridge last year
Image: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has praised the Government’s National Internship Scheme for reaching its target of 5,000 internships since it was launched last June.

Kenny said JobBridge is providing “invaluable experience” and said that some interns had already secured full time jobs as a result of the programme.

“I am delighted that JobBridge has provided 5,000 internships in only 8 months since I launched it last June,” said Enda Kenny today.

“Today, 5,000 additional young people have had invaluable experience in the work place with some already securing a full time job as a result. The scheme was a flagship commitment of the Government’s Job Initiative launched within the first 100 days of Government”.

He thanked the businesses who had “stepped up” to provide the opportunities for young people.

“As I said at the launch of JobBridge, overcoming this jobs crisis will be a truly national effort and the participation and effort of the private, public and voluntary sectors is essential. I would encourage all to engage with JobBridge, to provide more quality internship opportunities, and help get Ireland working again,” said the Taoiseach.

The are currently more than 2,000 posts available under the Scheme.

Participants in the scheme are required to have been on the live register for at least three months before applying for an internship, and receive €50 per week on top of their social welfare payment while undertaking the placement. However it has been criticised as a way for some employers to exploit free labour.

How is Enda Kenny doing on his ‘best small country’ election target? >

Previously: TDs: ‘JobBridge interns could help us do our jobs’ >

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Christine Bohan

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Comments (58 Comments)

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  • Phil Dargan 27/02/12 #

    Any way of finding out exactly how many secured a position?

    Would be interested in the percentage Vs those who didn’t do an internship & got a job in the same timeframe.

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  • Lisa Saputo 27/02/12 #

    This scheme can only be called successful when a considerable percentage of participants get a full time paid job once they have finish up the 9 month stint. I would like to see stats on that but have a feeling they won’t be forthcoming! Plus there are still lots of people looking for sales, waiting and cleaning staff, jobs that clearly don’t need 9 months training.

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    • Bernadette Dunne 27/02/12 #

      INTERNSHIP…was started well before this government were even elected. … so enda and co., give us the true figures. How many have Secured full time contracts?and how many are being treated fairly?

      Reply
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    • Chris 27/02/12 #

      To be honest, I think ye people arent seeing a lot of the good in this scheme. How long was it since ye left college? Or started lookin for your first job? Times are different now and I believe the most important thing on my CV now would be experience..very hard to come by these days…

      So even if no one secured a full time job out of this scheme the experience alone is invaluable..

      Reply
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  • Danielle Whelan 27/02/12 #

    I completed a JobBridge Internship and after completing my training, I applied for a position within the company and after successfully interviewing for the position, I am now a full time employee here at RIKON. Its a hard process working so many hours for little money but it is worth it in the end.

    Reply
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    • Eoin O'Duffy 27/02/12 #

      Good for you Danielle, well done.

      Reply
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    • Liam Byrne 27/02/12 #

      Well done Danielle. Now are we to now assume that your story is an indicator as to what will happen with all other internships?!
      I suspect that you were very lucky to be offered a full time job- in that you were the exception rather than the rule.

      Reply
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    • Danielle Whelan 27/02/12 #

      Hi Liam, I am not the only one to be successful gaining employment from the scheme, I know of others who have gained employment. I don’t think that luck was the main reason that I was offered an interview for a position within the company. I worked very hard and proved my worth and after going through the interview process, was successful in gaining employment. While I agree that some companies have abused the process and given the internship program a bad name, the essence of the scheme is still in tact, that is to get unemployed people back into the work environment.

      Reply
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    • Liam Byrne 27/02/12 #

      Don’t get me wrong danielle. I wasn’t saying that you were lucky in the sense that you didn’t work for it. I’m sure you’re work as hard as anyone else and earned that position.
      I was using the word luck in reference to the company that hired you. The majority of other companies would be much happier to abuse the internship scheme for free labour.
      Congratulations on getting employment !!!

      Reply
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    • Chris 27/02/12 #

      @liam how can you maintain your argument based on your perception of the scheme when you have clearly been told that many have gotten jobs out of it? Why jump to the negative conclusion? You dont have any stats to back up ur claim except what has been said here which has mainly been positive

      Reply
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    • Cliff Grebouwski 27/02/12 #

      Brilliant Liam! Who told you about “the majority of companies” exploiting the scheme- was it a guy in the pub, who’s friend once applied for a job?

      Do you have any idea how much work it is to source, hire and train people? Furthermore- do you know how difficult it is to find good people? If a company is lucky enough to find someone who genuinely fits into the business then they will want to keep them at all costs, the idea that they will let them go instead of offering them a job is laughably naive.

      Reply
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    • Chris 27/02/12 #

      Laughably naive…sums up a lot of the comments on here

      Reply
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  • James Pelow 27/02/12 #

    — i.e. JobBridge has replaced many viable paid positions with modern day slave labour. Internships should be outlawed.

    Reply
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  • Dougal McGuire 27/02/12 #

    People are not working for free, i know someone who was out of work for 2 years,he recently got one these internships,he gets paid his dole money plus an extra €80 from the employer,they have told him they will most likely keep him on in 6months time..this person feels he has something to live for & reason to get up each day,doesnt look upon it as hes working a 40 hour week for nothing & that hes gaining expierence anyway

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    • Chopper 27/02/12 #

      That’s excellent, glad he found a decent employer, though you should tell your mate to be careful when mentioning the extra €80 to the SW as it might be against the “rules” of the scheme. These are very oddly (and arbritrarily) enforced – nothing would happen to the company, but unless it’s for travel expenses he could get his dole cut.

      Reply
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  • 3christian3 27/02/12 #

    So that is what we are struggling to send our children to college and university for-so that they can be exploited and work for nothing.

    Reply
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  • Laura Kelly Hensey 27/02/12 #

    I’ve spent the guts of €20,000 on my degree. There are little out there unless you take an internship. I think the experience would be great but in reality, if I’m getting no money how do I get my children minded. I have small kids and find an internship is not aimed at everyone. Oh yeah and I am also 29 and wouldn’t class myself as a waster, I always worked but decided to better myself and put myself through college. So I have yrs of working behind me too, but not much experience in my new career.

    Reply
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  • mcbab 27/02/12 #

    My daughter had the same kind of positive experience as Danielle . Very successful. Look at it this way: someone has just finished college and gets an internship in the field they have graduated, this enables them to keep up the momentum and gain invaluable experience rather than all they have studied becoming a dim and distant memory! If they do well and a job becomes available they can just slot right in. If no job available that experience goes on the CV which is no bad thing. I wish all this negativity would stop.

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  • Idont Care 27/02/12 #

    How many of those people got a job ( and well done to them ) and how many are having a carrot dangled in front of them just out of reach with the promise of work when finished only to be told the job just is not there at the moment but will be called when it is. Also why is 9 months in a local shop needed for learning or in tesco for that matter when in the past only a couple of days was needed. I think that the internship system should be kept for people finishing higher education and need to gain experience in there chosen field. It needs to be kept away from the slave driving small minded business owners who are just using it for what it has become slave labor.

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  • Danielle Whelan 27/02/12 #

    You also get an extra €50 from the internship scheme. I have a Masters Degree in Business and was unsuccessful re-entering the workforce after being made redundant. After applying for countless positions, I saw the internship scheme advertised. The internship that I applied for had minimum requirements of a business degree. Not all internships are created for the unskilled. They are created to allow people to gain valuable work experience and if they are lucky a full time position at the end.

    Reply
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    • Liam Byrne 27/02/12 #

      I don’t think anyone has any problem with an internship with relevant experience. The problem happens when companies like tesco need interns to stock bloody shelves or when companies remove full time jobs so they can save money by getting in an intern for next to nothing.

      Reply
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    • Chris 27/02/12 #

      Have tesco hired any interns to stock shelves? Or is that a hypothetical situation?

      Reply
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    • Chris 27/02/12 #

      @Liam 99% of the jobs advertised at present are for highly skilled positions. Maybe that will change your opinion

      Reply
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    • Cliff Grebouwski 27/02/12 #

      Actually Chris- I think you’ll find that this sudden upsurge in Tesco bashing comes from events in the UK over the past couple of weeks.

      I believe the formula is: anecdotal evidence + unsubstantiated/irrelevant facts = ill informed rant

      Reply
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    • Dermot M****** 27/02/12 #

      @ Chris Yes Tesco have advertised shelf stacking internships with jobbridge, this was detailed on this site (via a tweet of mine) and others at the time. It’s not just Tesco Bashing, they were looking for (if memory serves) almost 200 staff across 19 stores.

      Reply
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  • Chopper 27/02/12 #

    That’s exactly what an “internship” should be for – experience in your field (as described by mcbab above.) Unfortunately, it is being misused by companies that are encouraged to move from the other WPP schemes (that do provide all types of work experience) to JobBridge. A consequence of this is that if you are disabled, on One Parent Family Payment or Widows Pension, you are ineligible to apply for any JobBridge post. http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-i%E2%80%99m-jobless-so-why-am-i-excluded-from-jobbridge/

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  • Aydo 27/02/12 #

    My mate is in it and says he just gets rubbish donkey work, 29 and has a degree, and no good experience and can’t wait till his 6 months are over.

    Reply
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    • Eoin O'Duffy 27/02/12 #

      Most likely yet another case of an individual feeling jilted because they didn’t make him president of the company in the first week. You have to pay your dues when you come in at the ground level of a company… besides the majority 29 year olds that are out of work are construction workers, and in that case he should be used to “donkey work” and be happy to get it. It’s the young people of this country that are facing the real challenge in this job market, the ones with no experience… they are the people emigrating. If you’re 29 and have no experience that’s your own fault, not the governments. You’re friend sounds like a loser who never got his shit together and is now giving out about a 2nd chance.

      Reply
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    • Paul Beggan 27/02/12 #

      29, degree, no experience… Sounds like a waster to me! I’m 32, with a 14 year career behind me and a diploma and I’m working my ass off to retrain to get better work…. I’m certainly not moaning like your mate. It’s the construction industry guys I feel sorry for…

      Reply
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  • squid 27/02/12 #

    It has put valuable experience out of the reach of jobseekers with disabilities, i would not call it a success more a stunt to create fake live register figures. Allow people who want to work access it though serious damage has been done to the labour market by jobbridge already

    Reply
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  • 3christian3 27/02/12 #

    So that is what we are struggling to send our children to University for-so that they can be exploited and work for nothing. What a great country.

    Reply
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  • Rodger O Waters 27/02/12 #

    Sounds pleased does the teeshuck, he raided private pensions to pay for this spoof then brays like a typical mayo donkey.

    Reply
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  • franco 27/02/12 #

    Jaysus eoin o Duffy how much is Herr enda paying you per post ?

    Reply
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  • Daffy Duck 27/02/12 #

    Kenny you gobshite this is slave labour and nothing less €50 extra that wouldn’t even cover travel and lunches for the week.

    Reply
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    • Eoin O'Duffy 27/02/12 #

      Clearly you’ll do a better job when you’re Taoiseach. He’s made to the highest position in the land, yet you call him a “gobshite”. I guess we all can’t be millionaire playboys like Daffy.

      Reply
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    • Andrew Brennan 27/02/12 #

      @ Eoin I’m surprised at you, you must have missed the news that the ECB/IMF/EU are running things here in Ireland. It was in all the newspapers and on TV. Even your hero King Enda and all horse-soldiers admit they have no sovereignty when it comes to the economy.

      Reply
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    • Michael Doran 27/02/12 #

      Just to let you know you get travel expenses for it

      Reply
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    • Chopper 27/02/12 #

      Michael, I just double-checked that on the JobBridge website (http://www.jobbridge.ie/InternPayment.aspx):

      “Out of pocket expenses – There is nothing to prevent a host organisation reimbursing an intern for expenses incurred as part of the internship. However, expenses should not be provided for normal activities such as travel to and from the intern’s base and normal expenditure incurred on a day to day basis.”

      Looks like I was wrong in my reply to Dougal above – his mate can’t claim the extra €80 is for travel…

      Reply
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  • DaveC 27/02/12 #

    5000 slaves and counting. An insulting scheme to say the least where employers get to pick and choose the slave of their choice. Most of the people on these schemes already have experience and are being exploited. In Germany at least your ‘intern’ is assigned to you if you want free staff.

    Reply
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  • Kerryspirit Chris 27/02/12 #

    Internships – can not hear that word anymore. So many employers use that for themselves. They take the avaliable jobs and turn it in an internship. Happened a few times to me…..So it is really PRO the employer and AGAINST the person who wants to work. No money to spend for the employer and no money to get for the employee. Great thing for the employers and cheap!
    And people with out job get so disllusioned and say well better than nothing…

    Reply
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  • Devrajan Srinivasan 27/02/12 #

    I wonder whether Permanent TSB offered any internships. Internships at this leading bank will come in very handy for budding bankers. Further details by searching in Google for ‘Permanent TSB bank Windle’

    A Chara

    The Common Informer

    Reply
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  • Eoin O'Duffy 27/02/12 #

    Excellent news, the goal has been met and will be exceeded. This has brought people back into the job market, in many cases giving them new skills and most importantly it has helped to spur on the economy.

    Reply
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    • Liam Byrne 27/02/12 #

      Eoin you’re full of it. This hasn’t solved anything. With all these people “back in the job market”, why have the unemployment figures shown an increase in unemployment?!

      Reply
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    • Cliff Grebouwski 27/02/12 #

      Careful Eoin, people on this board don’t like positive outlooks on anything…. I am in complete agreement with you, even the act of getting up and going to work is in itself a huge positive in people’s lives.

      Liam- why don;t you channel that anger into something useful instead of immediately trying to be negative?

      Moan, rabble etc….

      Reply
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    • Chris 27/02/12 #

      Haha, I love it when you find a voice of reason amongst all the shit talk on this website…makes me feel like im not alone!

      Reply
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    • Terry Turner 27/02/12 #

      I also agree with Eoin. 5000 internships voluntarily entered into has to be better for morale than chasing the few “jobs” that are available.

      Reply
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  • Daffy Duck 27/02/12 #

    @Michael thank you I didnt know that.

    Reply
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