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http://youtu.be/CyHdFB8e-OU
(Thejournalvideo/YouTube)
MINISTER FOR SOCIAL Protection, Joan Burton, has said that JobBridge “isn’t for everyone”.
In an exclusive interview with TheJournal.ie, Minister Burton said that JobBridge has “literally liberated” some people “and opened up a new life of opportunity and working for them”. But she added:
I’m also aware that other people don’t like it, we live in a free country, that’s their prerogative.
Critics
When it comes to the critics of JobBridge, such as the Scambridge website, the Minister questioned how many of the people behind the Scambridge site are themselves working.
She said that for graduates who cannot find employment, “the people with all this achievement, all this learning, practice, whatever they do on this course they come out and they still can’t get a job”.
She described this as “really distressing for themselves and their family”.
So the thing you have to ask people on Scambridge, the website you were talking about, is how many of them are not working? Because people in work are very, very different to the people who are out of work who are feeling their confidence, their contacts, their network, all the certainty they had about how good they know they are, kind of ebbing away and then ‘is there something wrong with me that I’m not getting a job’. The answer is there is a problem with the economy and we have to try and help people get back to work.
“So JobBridge is not for everybody, but for a lot of people and there’s independent evidence to show it, for a lot of the people who do it has been a pathway back to work,” said the Minister. She added that “not everybody is going to have the same pathway”.
She said of critics:
I’ve said several times in the Dáil that the people who are critical, and bring stuff on Jobbridge to our attention, thank you very much because we look at all the complaints in detail. If we find that employer in some way has been abusing the system we don’t allow that employer renew or take another intern.
Burton said she has met people who say they got a chance out of JobBridge, and that it is an option for people who have "just hit a brick wall as regards employment".
On the other hand, I get the sense that a lot of employers would like to take people on but they are not actually sure will I be able to finance this job, will this job add added value to my particular business.
She said that what JobBridge is doing is bringing those two sets of people together. JobBridge has been independently evaluated since it began, and both the interns and companies involved can contact the scheme at any time. "We have had thousands of visits to the places where people are interning," said Burton.
The feedback says that after five months 60 per cent of people have found employment.
According to the Minister, the people who are most successful are those working in the private sector in small and medium businesses. The placement rates have been "really, really good" in the public sector, with people picking up temporary contracts in some instances.
She clarified that two of the creches involved in the recent Prime Time investigation scandal had not had any JobBridge interns, and that one of them had an internship, but it was not in the creche featured in the programme.
She also said that some of the ads were in relation to childcare but more were in relation to areas like HR , payroll and services.
The interview with Minister Burton was filmed and edited by Michelle Hennessy.
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Wow that’s some admission ..”it’s not for everyone” but yet if you’re on the dole it is for everyone, you’re told to get on jobbridge,Tus or similar or loose payment. And then they have the cheek to turn a blind eye to the employers who are doing well & yet still advertise on there for slave wages.Cop on Joan surely you’re stupid?
She is indeed. Even the Troika and the OECD called her back-to-work jobs programmes ‘feeble’.
The fact is that all political parties have only a single plan to get people back to work – Foreign Direct Investment.
That means prostituting Ireland around the world as a low corporation tax (and even lower in some cases) regime.
Fine Fail, Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Fein – the Titanic string quartet.
Another Joan Burton info-mercial brought to you by The Journal.
Careful Alison. She knows she has no hope of getting re elected, hence the u turn on almost everything she has said or done.
If the people vote her back in it really proves how gullible and sheep like the Irish are…
She will be Re-elected because she’s doing a great job. I think jobs bridge is a great scheme. We all need to work and produce more in this country.
I live in her constituency and voted for her in the past.
I won’t be doing it again and I don’t know a single person who will.
The only Local labour man with any integrity left the party.
FF, FG, Labour.
All nothing but a pack of BS artists!
Voting in this country is like being given the choice between gouging out you left or right eye!
Exactly Alison
Job bridge isn’t for anyone more like!!!!
gov’t supported slavery, a scam to fiddle the live register figures, ye get €50 extra, but everyone on it is down money at the end of the week
Is the journal an extension of her toxic mouth now?
Joan you are doing an outstanding job and might I say what a smashing blouse you have on in the picture . It would look better on me tho as I am the one and only.
@VD. Is that were you caught it from?
What a thankless job actually doing something is. Hope she ignores moaners.
An employer subsidizing joke at a cost to the tax payer is all it is, but as Shaw said the government who robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
Sure is’nt for people who were made redundant so their boss could get interns in, is it Joany?
Joan’s not actually said whats going to happen to employers who abuse this system. There are internships advertised that should never have been let into the scheme, its quite clear they dont meet an internship requirement. Maybe she should offer internships working on the Jobridge website and if the interns can sort out these issues then make them full time instead of the dopes working on it at the moment.
There seems to be alot of inaccuracies. Read the statement I wrote earlier on. They analysed from only 54% of the interns who responded. That is not 60% success rate as there is another 46% who did not repsond to the survey.
It says here “Questionnaires were distributed to 4,401 interns and to 3,021 host organisations. There was a 54% response rate to surveys amongst interns. The response rate from host organisations was 50%. An exceptionally high level of response was achieved on both streams. Indecon would normally expect a response rate of 15 to 20% for such surveys.”
Only 50% from companies responded and only 54% responded from interns. That is not an actual figure but increasing to 61% did get employment. Only this 50% was analysed !!!!! Where is the rest of the other 50% roughly doing.
Job bridge is nothing more than slave labour. Certain large home care companies use Job Bridge for their HR jobs when they have big recruitment drives on after been awarded huge contracts for home care workers. Total scam .
I know everyone likes to put the scheme down but it has worked for me and I know 6 other people who have been successful too. After 5 years of college, I couldn’t even get interviews for a year. I had lots of volunteer and part time work experience but employers want actual experience. I did a 9 month jobbridge, got tons of experience, made friends and had an excellent mentor. I now have a full time that pays and I am delighted. I am a lot happier person then when I was in misery on the dole, not having any career prospects
I have seen Tesco jobbridges which I obviously see as bullshit and I know people will say that you should get paid for any work, your right too but in today’s day and age, you have to be realistic. With jobbridge, you can dictate terms to an employer regarding experience that you want to get. This allows you to get some unbelievable experience which a normal waged first time worker might not get to do.
I know 6 other friends who have had positive stories too. It’s not a perfect scheme but it does work if you make sure that you get the right internship for you which will give you the experience to get paid full-time work.
That’s all well and good but the point is we have a minimum wage in this country in order to stop exploitation. 40 hours for €238 is well under minimum wage.
Why all the red thumbs?
Its an internship, you leave if want to. You do it for experience in your chosen profession. It would be brilliant if you could get paid from the start. I got seriously pissed off that I wasn’t getting paid during my internship but I stuck with and it paid off.
As I said some internships are bullshit, no doubt about that. They should be stopped. However, it is a lot better to do some free work and get a paid job after, then sit around doing nothing. When your unemployed you lose a lot of confidence and your personal life suffers too. I was snappy, miserable and bored.
Also there is nothing new with internships. It isn’t a new concept, except you get the dole plus 50 euro. It actually makes internships possible, whereas it is usually only an available option to people with wealthy parents who support them.
@ the deise bull : I agree with you 100%. I had a rather bad accident and fell off a horse, I used to ride for a living now I cant anymore. I had worked with horses full time for 8 years and had to stop. I eventually after nearly a years recovery managed to get my doctor’s to let me do some form of work, so I applied for jobsbridge scheme. I had no experience working in an office but I found an internship where they took me on and showed me what to do. I am stil in this internship and thoroughly enjoying it with the promise of full time work when its finished. my employer is great and very understanding of my injuries. It really does depend on who you end up working for because yes some people are taking the pi$$ but some are just looking for someone who is going to fit in well with their company. If you get in with the right people it should work out well for you.
Ciara if your employer has full time position for you why do they leave you on the job-bridge scheme for now instead of getting you off benefits and paying you the going rate? What’s the hold up?
because as i said peace for all, I had no experience in an office environment at all. still training and building some form of office skills as i currently have feck all. but what he has done is upped my wages by €50 extra along with everything else. When i worked with horses and yes i have qualifications I prob would have gotten the same as what i am on now. Horse industry wages in Ireland are ridiculously low and I’m finding it of great benefit being on this scheme. due to the nature of my injuries, alot of people over looked me for jobs and internships. like I said if you get in with the right company and are a good fit everything could go fine. hes training me for 7 months with a full time job at de end of it.
Denise Bull, what area of work and where in Ireland did you and the other 6 people got them? If any chance, can you name the company too if possible.
jobsbridge is for employers who without too much effort can fool this government into giving them cheap employment at a cost to the taxpayer, while laying off there own workers. And yet she has the balls to say its not for everyone, sorry Joan but if you were living in the world of unemployment or modern ireland where if your getting the dole your seen as a leech and a burden you don’t get a choice of whether something like jobsbridge is for you or not
It’s an internship which is hugely selective in criteria for admittance, if you are one of the unfortunate self employed people who are disbarred from signing on the live register you cannot get on Jobridge even if you have successfully completed a FAS course. It appears to be an opportunity for the few and another method of selectively massaging down the unemployment figures
Two more opportunities to savour Ms. Burton’s pearls of wisdom!?! Oh dear me.
On paper this scheme should work. It should give employers access to a skill and enthusiastic labour force while giving unemployed people the chance to gain experience in a new career or get ones foot in the door in their chosen field for those just starting, out not to mention the confidence boost.
Yet in my opinion the scheme has been hijacked by bad intentioned employers who want free labour in this depressed economy. A glance at Scam-Bridges Scam-a-day is evidence of this corruption
http://www.scambridge.ie/sam-a-daysupervalu-driving-you-to-drink/ this is one example of jobs bridge taking a real job away from the market. I have seen similar ‘opportunities’ for people to work as a deli assistant and so on.
The startling statistic that only 24% of interns get a job after finishing their term is damning. I wonder what the percentage of businesses that apply for a new intern after cutting the other last one loose is.
The rules needed to be tightened for this to work.
pity she couldn’t raise the threshold for rent allowance to more realistic levels so that tenants, landlords and management agencies don’t have to lie on application forms leaving themselves wide open for court, prison and/or a fine for doing so!!
Is it a wonder people involved in scambridge might be out of work, all the entry level jobs are being turned into jobbridge.
I note with interest that thebjournal.ie didnt ask why blind people were banned from the scheme. the mobility allowance was wiped out because it was discriminatory. where is emily o reilly here?
I am also sick of people telling those critics of jobbridge to shut up and be positive.
Well if your not doing anything with your time as there are no jobs about
Why not retrain
You still get your benefit
If the scheme involved 100 euro extra there would be a huge uptake. 50 is a hardly pays for transport
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