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JOBBRIDGE WAS LAUNCHED by the government in 2011 as a pathway back into the workforce for unemployed people.
Almost four years on, do former participants feel it has worked for them?
In that time, over 37,000 internship placements have commenced. There are currently 6,194 interns on the programme and a further 1,300 or so positions are advertised on the JobBridge website.
The scheme has had many detractors, with some accusing businesses of abusing the system. Since its introduction, 520 complaints have been received – with 43 companies now banned from hiring interns for misuse of the programme.
To date, more than 9,000 monitoring visits have taken place, with Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton saying 97% of these “have been of a satisfactory nature”.
JobBridge doesn’t only get negative feedback, however, with some people willing to sing its praises.
Almost four years on from its launch, TheJournal.ie got in touch with former participants of the scheme to gauge their experience of the scheme and whether – most importantly – it helped them get a job.
The scheme is aimed at those who have been getting a jobseeker’s payment for at least three months. Participants in the scheme get an extra €50 per week on top of their social welfare payment.
Aoife O’Callaghan began an internship with Nortev, a veterinary medical device company based in Galway, in August 2013. The previous year she was made redundant after working in a factory for nine years.
Aoife (33) originally trained in social care and had hoped to become a nurse but was unable to pursue further study as she had two young children.
“Basically I needed to work, I had to work for them.”
She trained as a medical secretary but when she went looking for a job she said there was “nothing, absolutely nothing”.
For the year [I wasn't working] it just drove me nuts … I didn’t want to go down the benefits route. I’ve been working since I had a paper route at the age of 12. I got a strong work ethic from my mum.
The single mother admitted that living on €250 a week was difficult.
“It was tough, I had to move home with my mum until I kind of got back on my feet.”
Aoife said she has gained experience in several areas such as office management, administration, and marketing. She has also travelled to England and Poland for work.
“The only skills I had were Microsoft Word and people skills … The director of the company guided me all the way through. He was my mentor.”
After her nine-month placement was up, she was kept on as a full-time member of staff.
If it wasn’t for JobBridge, I would probably still be on benefits. I don’t understand the people that don’t take these opportunities.
Since getting the job, she and her kids have moved into their own home.
Aoife said her children, aged 13 and 9, are “absolutely ecstatic to have their own independence”.
You could see the confidence dropping in them. Niamh was very worried when I didn’t have a job. She’s very proud now.
She said it’s a “shame” there are “constant” negative stories about JobBridge in the media.
“No wonder people don’t want to do one … I would absolutely recommend it.”
So what’s her advice for dealing with businesses that take advantage of the scheme? Interns should take advantage right back.
“Take advantage of them – take all the advantage you can get off them. Gain as much experience as you can.”
Paul Alan Bonar has over 20 years of experience in theatre, securing a Drama and Film degree from Trinity College in 2010.
He lives in Donegal and did a JobBridge placement in 2012.
I feel as though I have now exhausted all of these [back to work] schemes, which seem to me more about creating favourable employments statistics than actually aiding the long-term unemployed.
Paul said there were times when he would have been “financially better off had I not been on one of these schemes”.
“I do it because I want to work, because sitting about the house day in day out has a negative effect on my self esteem and mood among other things. In a nutshell, I work for little else other than for the good of my mental health.”
Paul told us he is considering emigrating to England.
He said the pros of moving would include “finding a job that isn’t a scheme, that pays a wage and lasts more than 9-12 months”. However, there are plenty of cons such as having to move away from family and friends and “starting from scratch in a new town and leaving a place I am very fond of”.
Lauren Ritchie started a six-month placement at the Irish League of Credit Unions last June. Two months into her time with the company, an office administrator position opened up. She applied and got the job.
Lauren said the experience she gained through JobBridge played a vital role in helping her make the move from intern to employee.
I got a lot of experience, I was given different jobs to do everyday. It definitely helped me get the job I have now. I was just lucky that a job came up two months into my placement, I know other people wouldn’t be as lucky.
She studied Liberal Arts at Rathmines College and worked in an estates agents for six months, before finding herself unemployed.
After three months Lauren decided that JobBridge was her best way back into the workforce.
“I was a bit hestitant at first because it’s so little money,” she admitted, adding that she was “really grateful” she could live at home with her parents – something that’s not an option for everyone.
“For an older person or a parent, someone living on their own, it would be a lot harder.
It’s good if you’re living at home and don’t have to pay any bills. I did find it hard on €250 a week. If I wan’t living at home I don’t know how it would have suited. It depends on your circumstances.
Martin Malone worked as a photography intern with the Munster Express from July to September 2013.
He said the placement “looked like an ideal opportunity to get some experience in a newspaper environment”. However, he said he wasn’t given any training and was expected to do the work of a full-time photographer.
There was no one there for any kind of training whatsoever.
Martin made an official complaint to the Department of Social Protection alleging that he was required to supply his own equipment and that his work hours exceeded the 60 per week allowed.
He said the Department was “very good and took the report very seriously”.
The Munster Express was banned from the JobBridge scheme for two months as a result. Martin said he thought this sanction was “a bit weak”.
At the time, the newspaper denied the allegations saying that Martin was given mentoring “commensurate with our judgement and his abilities”. It also rejected the claim that he was required to work more than the allowable hours, saying that the position was 30 hours a week.
Martin said he is aware of people who have had “completely different” JobBridge experiences to him.
“There are good things and bad things about it. The main problem that I see is it’s not regulated enough. There needs to be more oversight of the scheme. The outcomes for the intern need to be monitored very, very closely.”
Eoin Mulhivill is the one permanent member of staff at Lime Interactive – a marketing and PR company he founded in September 2014.
He took on an intern four months ago, feeling that a JobBridge placement would be mutually beneficial for himself and “somebody out of work looking for an opportunity”.
Eoin told us he is more aware of what an intern needs as he did an internship himself (not through JobBridge) a few years ago, which he described as “beneficial” but “not necessarily cram-packed with experiences”.
He has found the process of training an intern “a little bit more demanding that I imagined”, but added this is “not a bad thing”.
Eoin said there is definitely the potential to offer his intern employment at the end of his placement, but noted that this depends on how many video-based contracts the firm takes on – as that’s the area he specialises in.
“If the internship doesn’t lead to a full-time opportunity, the best thing for me to do focus on which services I feel there is going to be the biggest demand for.”
Eoin said he is aware of instances where interns have been left to “flounder without guidance”, adding that he is an advocate of the programme, but only when it is “managed correctly”.
Dave Murphy, a member of the Socialist party, is one of the founders of ScamBridge.
In the last couple of years he said 300-400 people have got in touch to complain about JobBridge. He said many of the grievances come from people who want to work in retail or tourism, sectors that now regularly use the placement scheme.
Murphy said spot inspections are not enough, noting that just a fraction of companies are monitored in this way.
Speaking in the Dáil in November, Taoiseach Enda Kenny defended the scheme, stating:
JobBridge is what it says: it is a bridge to a job for a more permanent and better range of employment. The scheme also gives unemployed people a chance to match and increase their skills so that they can learn through practical experience and on-the-job coaching and mentoring.
Kenny said he is aware of “several cases” whereby placements “not in accordance with the terms of the scheme” were advertised. However, he added that the Department of Social Protection monitors the programme “rigorously”.
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I did one a few years back. Learned a lot and in fairness to my host organization he paid my travel which was in excess if the e50. However my problem is that the industry I am in uses the scheme as a revolving door. Therein lies the trouble I find with jobridge as it really does displace real work and drives down wages.
Charm offensive from the gov cannot be good,
intern to stack shelves? pick mushrooms? pump petrol
this is draconian stuff,
charm offensive – fine gael carpet bombing the media monologue
The idea was to aim it at high skill career areas where people have lots of education but no experience to get them cv builders in top name companies but that goals been totally lost and the meaning perverted.
Id do it part time but full time it works out at €6 an hour I earned more than that with just my LC packing shelves at the nadir of the recession The average industral wage is 600, the min wage is 346.
So basically yore doing a high skill career job for 238 when you can pack shelves in dunnes for 346+…and this is meant 2b an incentive scheme? Pfff IMO they should scrap it OR return to its old premise above for PT only and give a similar subsidy to actual real jobs the way the PTJob incentive scheme works an FT version of that would b huge incentive off welfare
What a load of bollix.Cheap labour for the boys fg ff labour sellouts
Ryan see the problem with the Dunnes/ Tesco argument is that these companies are begining to recruit a lot of people on 20 hour contracts which means they can pay someone e10-13 per hour but they get more workers that have to be available at a drop of a hat 24/7 for contracted hours and extra hours, but there is often no guarantee of extra work. So in effect a lot of people are only coming out with e250 ish per week from these jobs.
My point is FG/LAB can talk up Jobbridge and the recovery all they want but unless meaningful engagement with the labor market happens via ending JB and allowing the markets to right themselves, we won’t ever get wages up.
Is job bridge not just working for your benefits rather then just sitting at home and getting them for nothing
That’s one way of looking at it Richard, unfortunately the other is that it’s taking potential paid jobs out of the economy, the taxpayer foots the bill, the employer contributes nothing financially and Joan looks great as participants are removed from the live register figures.
Here is a link to a firm that posts Jobbridge internships every couple of months and never seems to employ any Architects/ Architectural Technologists. This is a widespread practice in the architecture and engineering profession at the moment. A lot of firms out there are actually freeloading off the state getting state funded workers to reduce their bottom line prices and increase productivity. As a -business model a free e17-22k a year worker for nothing is brilliant!!
Agree! I did an internship in 2013 and was told at interview that it was for the 9 months only and would not lead to a job!
The biggest joke of all about this scheme is the fact that the taxpayer pays the extra €50 on the social welfare payment, thereby increasing the tax burden and yet the intern is taken off the Live Register, thereby obscuring unemployment figures.
There are only 3,000 people on JobBridge so the effect on the unemployment numbers is minimal.
David best to keep it negative on here. Doom and gloom. The country is the worst in the world we are taxed the most, with nothing in return. The most expensive country in the world.
The entire welfare systems a joke start to finish ftom the farcical ‘courses’ available (nonsense like l3 certs in customer service..) to the rules around disability allowance (no requirement to b in treatment if addiction is your problem) to the absurdity of having jobseekers que up each month to pointlessly sign their name on a pad (?????) to selection for group interviews on work activation being totally RANDOM with no records kept of whos already done it leading to people being sent 2-3 times to the same thing and threatened with cut off if they dont go…Burton gets praise for welfare reform but the systems still a cluster**ck.
Irrelevant. It’s still disingenuous to place a further burden on the taxpayer while crowing that unemployment levels are falling. Whether it’s 3,000, 300 or 30 it’s still a lie.
They should b classed as unemployed BY DEFINITION they dont have a job.
Ryan, the reason people have to sign a pad once a month is to ensure that they are still around, and declaring that they are still unemployed but looking for work.
Thats nonsense youve to collect it in the po every week in person. Sure u could just fly in once a month.
Its a layover from when it was put into banks and its redundent its pointless to still do it, but it keeps the lazy power mad office staff there in secure jobs
@David Murphey
Actually David the numbers on activation schemes, which include jobsbridge are 91,027 and that is based on the last CSO report of 15th Feb, so activation schemes do greatly distort the actual figure always in favour of the government
So with the average social welfare payment of 188 + additional 50 the taxpayer is paying c 20 million per week for work activation schemes and the employer pays nothing.
Delighted with Aoife’s success but how did she pay for child care while completing her internship ?
She was in a position to move back home with her mother. That’s the payoff here I can’t see how it is realistic to do an internship if you have children and rent/ mortgage and childcare to think of. Most people can’t move back in with their mothers
That’s all well and good if you can live with your folks. But what about the thousands who have mortgages, bills, kids to raise etc? It is a scam. Cheap labour. So it gives you experience? A real job will do that but so many employers will use this scheme to avoid creating real jobs.
Child minding is a problem alright, but if you have a mortgage you have the same problem with payments whether you are in the jobbridge or just on the dole? You might aswell do the jobbridge thing as be on the dole.
It’s just a point that should be mentioned in the article.
Those on job bridge you can apply for CETS, subsidised crèche and afterschool care.
Did my internship in 2012 and still with the company 2 years on! I am one of the lucky ones!
Less than 2 % of Governments 200plus Jobbridge interns were kept on, 58% lower than what Joan herself said it would be.
These people let go will not have picked up skills to give them a chance of private sector employment. I did paid temp clerical officer work for the public sector, it wont give you a sniff of an interview for any office work out there.
It’s great to see benefit class become working class.
Sadly the benefit class are mostly on other schemes like disability or one parents not jobsbridge. JB is policed to actually a comicidiclly over the top degree these days (to point where theyre sending uni grads on pointless L3 courses) but for disability in some circumstances you dont even need a speceific ilness.
Again, another article that completely ignores the counter factual…
Does Scambridge actually make any difference to the TOTAL aggregate numbers of jobs in the MACRO economy? (This being about MACRO economics, not what some individual found.)
The answer to that must be a resounding NO. Why?
Because IF these jobs were actually needed to increase production to meet increased sales demand, then two things are obvious…
We would have seen massive numbers actually staying on with the ORIGINAL JB employer… rather than the fraudulent propaganda figure of 58% of participants in work somewhere, at some point many months later, being touted by deliberatlely fraudulent politicians…
And IF these employers really had new jobs to give, then the MACRO economy lost the spending power – and onward creation of other peoples’ jobs by this spending – of the proper wages these employers should have paid…. which means the scheme is certainly a nice little subsidy for business owners..
In the MACRO economic situation, there is only ONE primary creating factor for new jobs – INCREASED DEMAND. Overall, aggregate spending in the economy MUST INCREASE. Spending =>> Jobs.
When the private sector cannot do it, typical in a recession…then Government must, and uniquely has the monetary system ability to do so, absent ‘bond vigilante’ rake-off scams for the Bankers and Capital owners.
Sure, as populations grow, as they do, all economies have a natural tendency to growth, if only simply to feed, clothe, house, educate etc. these new ‘mouths’… but, as we see, after a significant economic shock, like the 2008 Banking Pyramid fraud bust…. it takes many years for natural growth to recover the level of activity we had, never mind the level we should be because of greater population.
It is criminally irresponsible for politicians to allow such lost decades – and production lost forever – to even worse than ‘do nothing’, actually make matters worse by Austerity – the precise opposite of what should have happened.
Austerity in an economic recession works well for ONLY one sector of society – the (minority) Capital owners, who get to hammer down the wages and conditions of the people that work for them, and get to buy up assets and forced privatisations at firesale prices for future rent gouging.
Labour classes get ripped off with reduced wages, higher taxes (because the economy has fewer working/less production, but same numbers..).. and mass unemployment, lost opportunities for young people to train and work.
No prizes for guessing whose interests, de facto, who our politicians, senoir public servants, media owners/editors etc. REALLY represent…..
What should have happened…a Job Guarantee…
Full time hours at a flat rate of minimum wage doing (non-competing) socially useful work in the community and charity sector, designed as transition or stop gap activity. Offered on a strictly voluntary basis to any and all who want it. (I guarantee legions of young single people – the bulk of the jobless – would have jumped at the chance. And our society would be much better off for such community activity.)
And the money to pay for the JG scheme – wages plus some overhead costs – should be new money in the economy, provided either by long term bonds (if we still want to gift the rich, bankers etc with unecessary interest payments for their otherwise ‘parked’ excess cash… how nice of us), or simply by Central Bank issued money, free gratis.
I absolutely guarantee had we done this (and preferably all of the Euro area/EU) 5 years ago, we would already be recovered and near full employment – that is in the ‘normal jobs’ created by JG wages onward spending. With very few left on the JG scheme, other than those who really need sheltered employment for various reasons, typically the typically the mental health issues that are very real in society, but otherwise completely ignored…
(Those able will naturally migrate from JG to normal jobs to get a higher than minimum wage rate/hours – the reason the JG only pays this one rate & standard hours.)
Disability is very specific I think. Listing conditions, and results of what they cause, specialist opinions, tests again if wanted. Go and independent doctors’ reports. Often interview (6 monthly) and drug reviews.
All monies checked and gone into thoroughly.
No, I think it is very specific and rather invasive, humiliating but I totally agree necessary for there are those that would abuse the system. As usual it is the rotten apple that causes havoc for the rest.
“If it wasn’t for JobBridge, I’d still be on benefits.” I’m more than a little skeptical about this statement. Surely if it wasn’t for JobBridge, there’d be actual jobs available instead of these slave labour schemes.
I finished college 6 years ago and since then I’ve struggled to get out of the retail jobs which I thought would only be a temporary fix 10 years ago. It’s incredibly frustrating to see an ad for a job that looks interesting, only to be greeted with the words, “The intern will gain practical experience in…” The best part of this whole farce is that you can’t even participate in these schemes unless you’ve been on the dole for over 3 months, so I’d need to quit my job and wait a few months before I’d be eligible?
To say that JobBridge is not displacing real jobs is a lie and a joke, it’s practically impossible to find entry level jobs these days that are willing to pay an actual wage. I’ll admit this scheme has worked out for some people but I’m not one of the lucky ones.
Well said Karen!
And slavery was brought back to Ireland by the the super rich landlord/minister Joan Burton,
who after the next Election will never have to work a day in her life again…
She works now ?
Doing what exactly?
Making weird noises and gesturing with her left hand is her job.
“Can I just say” Dave Dunne…that is spot on!!
Slaves gets a roof over their heads and a bale of straw to sleep on, perhaps sometimes a piece if bread and a cup of water. This is not slavery it’s worse.
I’m just so dizzy from all the spin.
Spot on Glen. Slave’s bridge, work for half of minimum wage. Well done Joan
perfectly shows what a resounding success job bridge is for those with initiative
Here is my story; I am currently employed by an estate agency firm in Co. Donegal. I work 40 hours per week minimum, with some Saturday viewings. Initially I was on Job Bridge for 9 months. I was then taken on by my employer. For employing me, my employer gets a grant subsidy on the Jobs Plus scheme of €100 per week, but they pay me €1.00 per hour less than the minimum wage. This was sanctioned by the Department of Social Protection under Joan Burton. The sooner the elections come the better!
Do you get rent supplement and a medical card, fuel allowance?
I do not get rent supplement or fuel allowance. I have a GP visit card. It is a real struggle trying to survive. It’s a disgrace that the Department of Social Protection would sanction and facilitate someone getting paid less than the minimum wage! Job Bridge is a farce. The fact that someone would ask me if I get any supplements shows ignorance to what is going on. What is happening in my case is illegal and the state supports it.
Im self employed and I employ a number of people. And it is illegal to pay less than the minimum wage.
You say you live in Derry Ireland from Londonderry Northern Ireland?
I live in Donegal, on the border with Derry City. Thank you for sending those links. The thing is, my employer notified the Department of Social Protection that they would be paying me less than the minimum wage and they sanctioned it. In return they got a grant. How messed up is that?
I wouldn’t want to work for a company like that.
@Mike
Londonderry???? WTF?
If your on less than the minimum wage why not take a case to the labour courts ? Maybe your on commission and your just crap at sales.
This my first comment on TheJournal. I was out of work for a while, a good while, and found it very hard to find a job. I was prepared to do any job to be out of the house and work. I had the education, the will, and the need. The Jobbridge scheme was a subject of a piece on the Six One News and I went on the website to see what it was all about. At the time, €50 extra a week was a huge thing. The way I looked at it was that I would be learning new skills, using the ones I currently have, would have the chance to find something permanent and ultimately was a step out of a hole that got darker every day. There were only about 20 or so jobs on the site at those early stages but one stuck out to me. I got lucky! I took to the role well and was made permanent. The company that took me on were the exact opposite of the horror story companies we all read about in the news: supportive, ethical, and the best in their industry. I was scared at the beginning, excited within a week, and three and a half years later (and a lot of hard work) I have recently been promoted and genuinely feel the sky is the limit. Every day I still feel humble, lucky and thankful for the opportunity it allowed me. I hope that others will find a similar path, especially those that have dependents and passions.
It’s not much job bridge as the company that’s to be commended for giving aoife work..so many job bridge placements are just for people to be used, abused & tossed aside for another when their 9 months are up.
Job bridge can work for a lucky few with decent employers. Most are just out to milk it.
To say the government are rigorously checking the host organisations is an out and out lie.
Enda says it’s a bridge to a job & yes *some* people do need experience and to learn skills but it’s highly demoralising for a skilled individual to be used as a lackey, learn nothing & just be rejected at the end.
I don’t think any of us need to elaborate on the fragile mental stability of people who are long term unemployed, having perhaps suffered countless job rejections & then sucked in by the job bridge machine…
“Participants were embursed for their comments and time”.
I still need to see proof that this whole scam is working. Paying 50 euro extra for a internship if one has to travel 100 + km to get to work, place the intern in a worst off situation.
I agree with Vin, it is just cooking the books to make it look better.
People on the ground knows the truth – it’s all about explotation.
Even worse is ce scheme – 20 euro extra , taxed on the whole amount (probably not that much if any, but still) expected to be flexible over weekends etc. so that gives you about 1 euro an hour. Way to go. That is taking explotation to a whole different level. (If you can get onto it in the first place)
Employed people are ignorant and don’t know what is actually going on.
When you use a phase like “I.. need to see proof that this whole scam is working”, it is obvious that your opinion has already been formed in the absence of any proof or evidence and no amount of proof will sway it.
Correct, it is my opinion. I cannot comment on other views – Like the ones that found it to be usefull.
As for proof, it can be swinged in both directions depending on how much power you have.
I’ll be the first one to admit if I’m wrong, and will gladly support any scheme if it reaches more than a 50 percent sucess rate.
My gripe is not with the half hearted attempt (again in my opinion) but with the way it is presented as the next best thing to sliced bread.
Which bings me to another thing, what was/is wrong with a trail period ? Everyone needs to do this in any event. At least with a trail period, the individual gets paid.
Or am I living in the middle ages ?
“At the time of the survey, over half (52%) of interns who completed their internship were in paid employment”
https://www.welfare.ie/en/pressoffice/Pages/pr010513.aspx
Boom.. the random figure that you just pulled out of your ass has been met, Happy days, I take it you now support the scheme?
Let me apply for one just now. We’ll see how far it goes without putting me on the street. I might just also mention that I cannot take one that is going to cost me 50 euro a day just to get to it. But…I’ll give it a try and respond back.
CE schemes while not great are much better than internships. First: they work on average 19.5 hours per week so they are not working 40 plus hours like most internships. Second: they are allowed to take on other employment during their time on the scheme. Third: they are mostly working for not for profit community projects/groups who are not using it as a means of cheap labour to make more money. And you mention they pay tax on the whole amount, well actually they pay no tax on the €208 per week as they fall below the threshold for PRSI, their tax credits are more than enough to cover PAYE and all CE scheme employees are exempt from USC. So they are actually better of than someone working 24 hours per week on minimum wage.
And thats why I applied for 4 of them within the region. None sucessful. 2 was to support local community GAA pitches mowing lawns etc. 1 to pick up papers and plant trees/flowers, and 1 for it support.
Now Im not fortunate enough to pick and choose, so anything will do.
Average of 50 applications per position I was told.
Boils down to who you know within the community, they get paid a certain amount by social or the government, and Im making a bold statement here by thinking that those positions has already been filled and it is purely a situation of obtaining the funds.
Did you just ignore the fact that the figure that you produced as the point where you would support the scheme has been passed and go on to waffle about there being too many applicants per position for you to get a place.
That proves two things Francois
(1) My initial comment about your lack of interest in any sort of proof or evidence was correct.
(2) You’re an asshoIe.
Have a nice day.
“They get paid a certain amount by social or the government” are you suggesting that the administrators of the CE scheme are paid to run it?
CE schemes take the form of a Company limited by Guarantee. The Directors of this company who run the CE scheme are volunteers who do not receive any salary or expenses. They are simply individuals who give up their own free time to help community groups and projects.
Could you explain what you mean by saying the positions are already filled and it is purely a situation of obtaining the funds? Because if you mean what I think you mean then I can correct you on that as well .
Jobsbridge is just another form of low paid labour designed to help out businesses, that are too stingy to pay a decent wage … while massaging the unemployment statistics for the government
Time for it to be scrapped
OFFS.
Just finished a 9 month jobsbridge in the HSE as a scientist. Loads of work and boss wanted to keep me on but the red tape involved wasn’t worth it. Found a job in the private sector based on the expertises gained but the wages are less than the dole, so I’m taking a gamble for the future, couldn’t spend another day on the dole, sure it’s easier to find a job when you have one.
I don’t see why we can’t just bring in some sort of national service as part of your education, maybe instead of 4th year.
For example If you want to be a nurse, work in a hospital, a mechanic or a cook Go work for the army.
There is nothing wrong with this sort of thing as long as it’s main focus is on the candidates development, that has not been the case in 100% of the time with jobs bridge.
How about those interns on less than €200 working 40 hour weeks making sandwiches??
Jobs that used to be ‘entry’ level and never used to require experience to get! And why on earth would a company employ a person when they can just get an intern to work for free!
There are definitely some good internships out there but they are few and far between!
Much of the problem lies in the education system. We have a shortage of doctors yet there’s a restricted quota of new graduates every year. If people choose to study art, dance etc, they need to understand that there are very limited opportunities out there. A decent living will only be made out of it if someone is absolutely outstanding, for the huge majority this won’t be the case.
Doesn’t help when a big portion of irish college trained doctors are actually foreign or that irish doctors go abroad for more money/experience
I’m not sure what the point of having an employer’s ‘take’ on using JobBridge has to do with this article, and I do feel the whole article is trying to praise the government while party conference season is on-going! Please don’t be spinning this kind of material, you just alienate us readers!
You know, the scheme is supposed to be a *pathway* into work, and there is considerable evidence to suggest that it is solely used by employers to have a source of slave labour. Sure, there are cases of people whose internships have been turned into employment, but many people know about negative cases. What this scheme seems to have done is destroyed the “starter job” in Ireland. It should have been established that the dole would be matched by an employer (that’s the Credit Union, above), it would still be low-paid labour, but the company would have to put up some funds to support an intern. I am appalled to see government bodies, banks, etc. employing interns, these organisations can readily employ people.
Where the internship is an a ‘start-up’ or micro-business, there should be clear support for the company AND intern to retain the intern and develop his/her career (i.e. a benefit to the intern if the job does not become viable). As it is, this scheme is ‘free labour’ for any employer with a pulse. I’ve seen internships for petrol pump operators, etc. for schools (where one advert said ‘no talking on the job’!!), so this is a shambles.
What makes this appalling is that other incentives that would support long-term unemployed re-entering employment, seem to have been scrapped and/or curtailed over the past few years. I recall that there was an allowance for hiring long-term unemployed (which used to go to the new hires themselves but it) is now given to companies. Likewise, taking up self-employment, the “dole” support has been curtailed by a year, it used to be for three years and there seems to be considerable paperwork in keeping the authorities happy for the pittance involved.
Basically, the efforts to create a pathway to work are ineffective and tend to have more stick than carrot. It needs to be much more flexible to allow, for example, working mums to have childcare support, instead there’s no practical thought involved. I can understand why one of the interviewees above is contemplating leaving.
If the government has more financial wiggle room now, it should become more creative with these schemes and take more adequate action to counter exploitative internship practices. More joined-up thinking and less spin please!
Thank the banks while ye are at it!
Only for them we wouldn’t have this job bridge
How much did Moan pay for this article?
6 Examples does not prove the rule, I knew about / over 50 on a Momentum scheme and only 2 got a job out of that…
The difference is under job bridge the host selects they best applicants, under fas/solas courses there is no selection. Those selected for internships mightn’t be the ones most distanced from the employment market either, for momentum you have to be long term unemployed while under jobs brdge some “interns” are more experienced then there mentors(if they have one).
Under Work Practice as they call it with Momentum the host company can select the one doing Work Practice for them but this seems to only happen with Blue Moons appearing lol.
this lady moving home with her mother with her two children. so i imagine that solved the childcare need, plus her rent/housing costs also negligible when living with her mum.
it is not comparable to the majority of single parents so this type of piece is misleading.
if you are lucky to have a parent or relative for free to mind your child or children (you may becoem a single parent at any point) then you do not have a childcare need. the rest unfortunately just like working two parent families do (ireland has 2nd highest childcare costs in the world) not every school has afterschool and some kids need a minder one on one with special needs. so this can complicate the childcare accessibility and affordability (minders dearer than creches).
she also hasn’t a mortgage or rent (which are rising and often out of synch with many people’s incomes) to pay on one income. sadly the piece is about one rare single mum who has solved both of the main issues with paying your way as a single parent, and who can work for 50euro and still feed and house and care for her children. the thousands of single parents, whether separated, divorced, male, female, urban, rural (harder to get childcare in the country than anywhere else!) cannot move forward as the costs esp childcare back them against a wall. and they mush as they would love to, cannot do a jobbridge or more importantly a real job that pays…..a single parent family would need to earn 40 grand to ONLY pay childcare and rent for one/two kids!
i really hope the new election issue of costs of childcare and the whole industry comes to something and quick, because bringing up a child when lone parents get the payment cut this july is going to be awful. there will be homelessness, greater poverty, children left at home alone if parents go to work, depression, desperation and all that stress on a parent who would love to work if only the childcare was more manageable.
jobbridge might work for a single person at home with parents, or in a cheap flat. or for a parent with no childcare to pay or perhaps with parents and no housing costs. but not for the rest of the people not working.
Graduates leave college with hopes and aspirations of finding employment in their chosen field or profession, however they soon realise from Jobbridge that their education is not valued and if they are lucky enough to get internship they will find that few can survive on 150 euros per week and be expected to pay their own transport etc.
Imagine, someone who wants to a job in theatre but lives in Donegal is unemployed. Who would have thought.
I can’t imagine there were too many theatre jobs in Donegal even in the boom times.
Yes but I didn’t confine my job search to Donegal, or indeed to theatre. What little jobs which are available in theatre have been turned into jobridge or CE scheme positions. Also, when I look beyond Donegal, places such as Dublin and Galway for example, so many of the ‘jobs’ in creative arts (not just theatre) are Jobbridge also. Like I said in the article, I am prepared to move and in fact have done so to start a jobbridge position. I have also worked as a youth worker on CE schemes which the vast majority of positions are. If you got from the article that I confined my search to theatre jobs in Donegal then it would seem the article misrepresented me.
There were very little jobs of any kind in Donegal during the boom time but that’s another story.
I know 4 people who have done job bridge and all 4 got full time jobs out of it! They got a chance where normally they wouldn’t have
I don’t know why people are looking negative on your comment? I guess they’re just stuck in a negative attitude themselves. What you’re saying is only positive? Perhaps a down thummer could enlighten me as to their train of thought here?
If it wasnt for jobbridge I would probably be in employment as the work i am qualified for isnt availible on the likes of the Work Placement Programme and I am barred from Jobbridge. if fact. people coming off training courses paid for by Intreo cannot get the work experience required at the end of their courses because it is easier for employers to take jobbridge interns than take someone from a course for four weeks.
37000 have been through jobbridge..how many are now in full time employment with the companies they interned with, how many feel that internship lead to other employment.
How many companies using internships have released figurss on the number of full time jobs they have generated through this scheme??
this evaluation in 2012 said “51.6% of non-graduate interns have secured employment,”
had 3 job bridge interns completing the internship with our company within last 2 years and all 3 are working on full time positions with us. One of them is now an office manager. It all depends on the intern how much they want to give and how much they want to learn.
We have mentors and development plan for all in place. It was a success for us.
So your company presumably depends on the government for cheap labor? Very sad, especially given the fact companies in Ireland pay little corporate tax than other countries. This should be changed by the next government and if companies don’t hire the ordinary way, they should not get any tax advantages.
I started an internship in January and as of next week I’ll be a full time employee. I used Jobbridge as a route to change career, from teaching into digital marketing, and without this opportunity I’d be still unemployed.
Maybe it was luck, maybe the company planned it or maybe I worked hard enough to get the job on merit but if anyone asks me about Jobbridge, they’ll get two thumbs up.
Yes Tom, and well done, but you’re the exception rather than the rule. Colour me sceptical about the whole scheme…
Well paid jobs in drama or photography are hard to come by at the best of times.
You make your own choices when planning your career.
Not every accountant or IT tech support is living their spiritual dream, but they know what puts money on the table.
Yes, but who said they have to be welled paid jobs, just paid jobs with the same rights and entitlements as everyone else. Because of Jobridge etc what once would have been paid jobs are now work for benefits. Also my job search has not been confined to theatre nor have the schemes in which I worked for benefits.
Sinn Fein is launching ‘bomb bridge’, a scheme to create employment in bus companies by stopping trains.
Reading through the comments it is clear that I am wrong looking for the bright spots.
and i see she did the living at home and surviving on 50euro when ON jobbridge. clearly she says when she got a job, she mentioned she moved into her own home with her kids. they are 13 and 9. i imagine she has worked some afterschool care or hrs as they are old enough to not need a creche, minder or pre school year like some families with younger kids. but well done her. she made it work and got some help in the process for family and so on, which helped.
And to emphasize that this coverage about JobBridge is all spin and guff, see this article (the same employer mentioned above) in this morning’s Sunday Independent:
The author comments that all he can do is ensure a fair workload… how about ensuring fair pay?
and there folks is the evidence :)
No good if your means tested & entitled to only €3.80 a week is it….
have your say