Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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582. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views that it is appropriate for the new Education and Training Boards taking out paid advertising in regional and local media to attract applicants to the JobBridge scheme, if there is no possibility of employment at the end of their internship; her views that internships should only be made available for such boards if a job is available to the intern at the end of the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37162/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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JobBridge internships are designed to provide interns with high-quality real-workplace experience to enable them to break the cycle where they are unable to progress into employment, even with good practical or academic qualifications, but lacking, recent, proven real work experience.

As at 22^nd August, 2013, 19,954 internships had commenced since JobBridge came into operation, 5,338 individuals were actually on internships and 2,149 internship opportunities were advertised on the JobBridge website ( ). There have been 312 internships in the VEC/ETB Sector since JobBridge commenced. 301 of these internships have been completed and 11 individuals are currently on internships in that sector.

The evaluation found that over two-thirds of internships have been in private sector organisations, while 22% of internships have been in the public sector and 9% in community and voluntary sector organisations. I am very encouraged to advise that the evaluation also found that 41.2% of all participants who undertook their internship in a public sector organisation progressed into paid employment.

JobBridge internships are providing effective and high quality real-workplace experience to break the cycle where the unemployed, even those with good vocational or academic qualifications have difficulty securing employment without demonstrable work experience.

The high rates of progression into employment among public sector interns also show that the benefits of the development and experience that interns gain in public sector host organizations facilitates them in gaining employment.