Interns will not be exploited under €20m scheme, Government insists

THE GOVERNMENT has insisted a new internship scheme costing €20 million a year will not be used by employers as an excuse to hire cheap labour.

JobBridge is an initiative by Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton which will offer 5,000 work experience placements to people who have been unemployed for at least three months.

Participants will receive an allowance of €50 a week on top of existing social welfare entitlements for the duration of a six-nine month internship.

“I would hope that some employers who through JobBridge find talented and motivated interns can make the decision to offer employment to their intern. In other words, the period of internship would be a job interview for a longer period of employment,” Ms Burton said.

Ms Burton said companies would be vetted and interns would not be exploited. The scheme administrator will have the right to review cases in the event of reports that existing employees are being displaced by interns. JobBridge will be administered by the employment services division of Fás, which is in the process of being transferred to the Department of Social Protection.

Ms Burton stressed the high calibre of the organisations that had already signed up to the scheme, adding that 500 expressions of interest had so far been received. Among the companies supporting the scheme are KPMG, Accenture, Tesco, Aer Lingus, Glanbia, Quinn Group Ltd, Glen Dimplex, HP, ESB, Arthur Cox, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Bord na Móna.

The Department of Social Protection will cover the cost of the weekly €50 allowances so there will be no direct cost to participating organisations. A budget of €13 million for the remainder of this year and €20 million in a full year has been allocated and applications for internships will continue to be accepted until June 2013.

No age limit will apply to those who want to avail of placements, Ms Burton confirmed.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, at the launch of the scheme, said establishing a national internship scheme was a “flagship commitment” in the Government’s jobs initiative announced last month.

“When internships are well- structured in the vast majority of cases, the young people who participate in them make such an impression either they forge new careers for themselves or are taken on by the companies directly,” Mr Kenny said.

The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) welcomed the scheme and said it was critical that it was monitored and provided a “meaningful and fruitful stepping stone” for unemployed people into paid work. The fact that the scheme was open to non-graduates was noted by the organisation.

However, it insisted 5,000 internship places were not enough. “The INOU notes that the monthly increase in the Live Register was 2,900, an increase that would absorb almost 60 per cent of the number of internship places the Government intends to create,” a spokeswoman said.

Fianna Fáil spokesman on social protection Barry Cowen claimed the scheme “fails to harness the full potential of the voluntary sector”. He added the participation of GAA clubs and local charities had been ruled out. “The organisations involved in the scheme must already have staff who are on their own payroll in full. Therefore those with only voluntary staff or staff recruited through community employment schemes are not be eligible,” Mr Cowen said.

The Union of Students in Ireland warned that “unnecessary hardship” could result for people without sufficient PRSI credits to claim the full rate of jobseeker’s benefit.

HOW TO APPLY JOB SCHEME OPENS TOMORROW

INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES will be advertised on jobbridge.ie from tomorrow. Those who have been on the Live Register for at least three months can use the website to apply directly to organisations for internships.

If selected as a "preferred candidate", individuals must bring an eligibility form to their local social welfare office for completion. If eligibility is confirmed, the form should be e-mailed, posted or faxed to JobBridge's national contact centre or presented to Fás for processing.

The organisation will then be informed if the internship can get under way and the company can contact the intern to confirm a start date for the placement, lasting for six or nine months.

An agreement outlining what will happen during the internship must also be signed by both the company and the intern.