Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Given that economic circumstances have improved significantly over the past two years, it is now appropriate to review the performance of the various employment programmes operated by the Department. In this regard, as part of the Pathways to Work programme, the Department will during 2015 undertake an evaluation of a number of programmes, including JobBridge. This evaluation will include an econometric analysis of outcomes for participants compared to outcomes for control groups of similar non-participants. The evaluation approach will make use of data from a longitudinal jobseekers’ database developed by the Department over the past three years and is expected to produce insights to inform policy choices, including the potential redesign or cessation of schemes.

By way of update, over 37,700 jobseekers have voluntarily commenced internships on JobBridge since 2011, there are currently 6,140 interns on the programme and a further 1,129 positions are advertised on the JobBridge website. The last large-scale independent review of JobBridge was completed in 2013 by Indecon. This review was based on a survey of over 2,300 interns and over 1,500 host organisations. It showed a very low level of job displacement, 3%, an overall high level of satisfaction, 66%, and a very positive rate of progression to paid employment, 61%.

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