Written answers

Thursday, 5 March 2015

Department of Social Protection

National Internship Scheme Administration

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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24. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views that the JobBridge monitoring checklist is inadequate and fails to measure the quality of internships in a meaningful way. [9311/15]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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JobBridge has made significant progress since its introduction in July 2011. To date, over 37,700 internship placements having commenced, there are currently 6,140 interns on the programme and a further 1,129 positions are advertised on the JobBridge website.

Participation both as a host organisation and as an intern on the scheme is voluntary. The Department has a range of monitoring and compliance measures in place.

JobBridge monitoring is conducted at all stages of an internship. Notably monthly online compliance forms must be completed by each host organisation and randomised on-site visits are conducted by officers of the Department throughout the course of the internship. Evaluation forms are sent to both the intern and the host organisation upon completion of an internship.

As part of the scheme criteria, host organisations are required to provide ongoing mentoring and to assign a named mentor to each intern. Compliance with this requirement is monitored through on-site visits by officers of the Department.

Interns, host organisation and members of the public who have concerns with an internship have, at all times, the dedicated JobBridge team, the established Departmental complaints system and the staff at the local Intreo centres available to them.

I am satisfied that these measures ensure a high quality internship experience for interns, prevent abuse of the scheme and eliminate it wherever identified.

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