Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On 23 January, the total number of persons who have participated on JobBridge was more than 25,200 and there are currently nearly 6,400 participants. Data on current recipients by county are included in the table following this reply.

I share the Union of Students in Ireland’s vision that Ireland’s real competitive advantage lies in producing highly skilled, highly qualified graduates which must form the foundation of our future workforce. I also note that the USI considers that internships will continue to form an important entry route into employment for many graduates. In this regard a criticism in the past, made by the USI among others, was that unemployed graduates lost their jobseeker's payment if they took up an internship.

JobBridge was partly a response to such criticism but I emphasise it does not cater just for graduates. It is designed to ensure both graduate and non-graduate jobseekers can secure the real workplace experience without which many would have difficulty in progressing into employment. This means some of the opportunities offered through JobBridge do not fit the profile of the traditional graduate internship. I make no apologies for this and neither will the very many interns who found JobBridge a very effective route into paid employment. The independent evaluation of JobBridge found that 61% of interns were moving into employment within five months of finishing JobBridge, and there were very low levels of displacement and deadweight.

JobBridge has been recognised as an outstanding success and is delivering for thousands of jobseekers by providing them with valuable opportunities to gain relevant work experience, knowledge and skills in a workplace environment to cut across the problem that some highly qualified graduates cannot get a job because they have no work experience. When they get work experience, which JobBridge provides, they often become extremely employable. Many interns leave JobBridge before the internship is complete because the company for which they have gone to work has offered them employment.

JobBridge participants by county - January 2014

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