Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The JobBridge scheme has made good progress since it came into operation on 1 July 2011. Over 23,000 internship placements have commenced to date, and over 11,000 companies have participated in the scheme. There are currently over 6,400 jobseekers participating on the scheme and over 2,300 posts advertised on the JobBridge website. Independent research indicates that over 60% of interns who finish placements progress into paid employment. These progression outcomes are exceptionally positive and compare very favourably with European averages in this area.

The question of whether the names of host organisations should be published is a matter which has arisen from time to time. I have taken the view that as participation as a host organisation is voluntary and as host organisations receive no payment from the State for their participation in JobBridge, it is not necessary to publish their names and I have decided that their names should not be published. In coming to this view I am informed by the very high progression rates to employment under the JobBridge scheme and am concerned that nothing should be done which might discourage employers from voluntarily offering internship opportunities, and deprive people who are unfortunately unemployed to gain valuable experience and get on the road to becoming fully employed.

A feature of the JobBridge scheme is that the Department required host organisations to put in place a coaching and mentoring process for each intern and to submit a monthly compliance report to the Department. The Department monitors compliance with this requirement. It also conducts randomised site visits and over 3,876 such inspections have been performed. Given that there are 11,000 host organisations, that is a really high rate of onsite inspection, along with the desk-based monitoring that also takes place. As a consequence of these visits, 32 host organisations have been excluded from any further participation in JobBridge. It is important to highlight that the overwhelming majority of host organisations are abiding by the terms and conditions of the scheme.

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