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30 September 2011

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FINE GAEL/LABOUR INTERN PROGRAMME | A STEP UP THE CAREER LADDER?

JobBridge to Nowhere

 

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton launch the ‘National Internship Scheme’

» BY MARK MOLONEY

WHEN the National Internship Scheme, also known as “JobBridge”, was announced in June by Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton TD, she promised it would offer unemployed people a real chance to gain valuable experience and get a foot on the employment ladder after training, apprenticeship or graduation.
JobBridge allows companies and employers to recruit interns for six-month or nine-month periods. The interns receive €50 on top of their dole for taking up a position.
At the time of its unveiling, Sinn Féin warned that the scheme could be abused by unscrupulous employers to obtain cheap labour.
Speaking in the Dáil, Sinn Féin spokesperson on Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation Peadar Tóibín TD said:
“This announcement is a cynical attempt to make a good news story. It is a pathetic sticking plaster to a problem that demands a real jobs strategy along with major surgery of a targeted fiscal stimulus.”
Sinn Féin also called on the Government to ensure that the internship scheme would not be abused by employers seeking to use the massive increase in unemployment to fill temporary or low-skilled positions.
Joan Burton and the Government assured the public that the scheme would be protected from abuse. According to the minister:
“In order for an application from a host organisation to be approved, it must meet a number of criteria to ensure that the potential internship is one of quality. The JobBridge team have a strict vetting process in place to ensure that proposed internships meet the quality requirements.”
During August and September, though, there were numerous internships advertised whose benefits were open to question at best while other positions required fully- trained staff with PhD qualifications.
One advertisement was for a “Furniture Mover”, which would require the intern to work 40 hours a week for nine months. Another was for a highly-skilled “Chemist”, again receiving €50 for a full week’s work. The benefits of such a position, which requires the prospective candidate to have a PhD, is dubious.
Another example can be seen with an advertisement for a web design internship. The company advertising this position, though, is a small removals company — surely a web design internship should be with a company which specialises in this role?
The Department of Social Protection has been forced to remove a number of postings from the JobBridge website, noting that they had failed to meet the required standard. The department and the FÁS training authority also attempted to increase moderation of the site to avoid abuse.
FÁS said “a ‘whistle-blowing’ feature has been introduced, where any individual who suspects that an internship may be in breach of the scheme’s criteria may contact the National Call Centre. All such claims will be investigated”.
The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) initially warmly welcomed the JobBridge scheme but it has become increasingly concerned over the quality of internships being advertised. James Doorley, a member of the NYCI who sits on the JobBridge steering group, said: “It’s an awful pity because the concept is good, the idea is good. But because quality control wasn’t exacted at the start, a lot of people won’t engage with it, thinking that it’s all waiting tables or cutting grass.”
Even after such concerns were raised, questionable internships were still appearing on the site. For instance, on 16th September, Tesco (pre-tax profits of €4.35billion for the year ending February 2011) advertised for 145 positions in “Customer Assistance” over the Christmas period but the description made it clear that the company was looking for Government-subsidised shelf-stackers. The advertisements did eventually disappear but Tesco said it was not sure why and said it stood behind its ads.
The issue of multinational corporations who take in millions every week exploiting this scheme to obtain cheap temporary Christmas staff highlights all that is wrong with the JobBridge programme.
Perhaps in six months’ time we’ll hear from hundreds of interns who have benefited from worthwhile training opportunities by conscientious employers that help them to get actual jobs in a challenging employment market. Or will a senior Labour Party minister be struggling to explain away how JobBridge was used as a cheap labour scheme by companies instead of providing full-time jobs with a living wage?

 

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