Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

JobBridge, the National Internship Scheme, was introduced in July 2011 with the aim of providing unemployed people with the opportunity to secure work experience and to prove their competence to prospective employers, thereby breaking the vicious cycle of “no work, no experience; no experience, no work”.

Participants on JobBridge receive an internship allowance equivalent to their weekly social welfare payment plus an additional top-up allowance of €50 per week as a contribution towards possible expenses incurred arising from their participation on the scheme.

Therefore, the cost of each additional 100 internships is €5,000 per week (€50 top-up X 100). JobBridge internships can last for six or nine months, typically the latter. The total additional cost of 100 nine-month (i.e. thirty nine-week) internships would be €195,000.