JobBridge

JobBridge was a national internship scheme formulated in 2011 by the government of Ireland.

JobBridge's stated aim was to "assist in breaking the cycle where jobseekers were unable to get a job without experience." €50 was added to the trainee's weekly unemployment allowance. In an attempt to prevent abuse, employers could not have laid anyone off within three months prior to signing up for the scheme and trainees must had been on the live register for three months or more.

As of August 2011^[update], 1,285 internships had been listed on the scheme's website, with a further 500 being vetted for listing, 473 interns had been selected and 292 had started their programs. On 9 August 2011 the National Economic and Social Council called for the scheme to be expanded beyond the initial 5000 internships originally planned in order to make a bigger difference to unemployment.

On 22 May 2016, it was announced by Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar, that the internship scheme was to be discontinued after five years. Varadkar said that he was going to replace the JobBridge internship scheme with a more targeted scheme in 2017. This announcement came a week after Minister of State for Training and Skills John Halligan called for the controversial scheme to be cut.

On 21 October 2016, the JobBridge scheme was officially closed down.

JobBridge attracted criticism from campaign groups, politicians and trainees alike. Disability rights organisations, including the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (Ahead) and The Irish Wheelchair Association, had in the past criticised JobBridge for excluding people with disabilities who were in receipt of disability allowance.

All of Ireland's opposition political parties spoke out against JobBridge. Fianna Fáil called for the abolition of JobBridge to end the “exploitation of young Irish people by the programme”.Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams accused the government of massaging unemployment figures through "forced labour" schemes like JobBridge and Gateways. Former Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy said “the taxpayer is subsidising free labour for big companies as well as the exploitation of the interns themselves”. He criticised car repair firm Advance Pitstop for seeking to hire 28 interns through the scheme, which he claimed would save it €377,000 compared to the cost of hiring full-time staff. Joe O'Connor, USI President, said that while the USI believed there was a need for quality internships and real upskilling opportunities for young people in Ireland, it was clear that JobBridge was “broken beyond repair”.“Any internship scheme should be properly monitored and regulated, and should not displace fully paid labour. Clearly, JobBridge is failing in that respect, and we believe it should be brought to an end.”

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Wikipedia