JobBridge – the National Internship Scheme

The Government has introduced a new national internship scheme called JobBridge. This will provide 5,000 internship opportunities of six or nine months for unemployed individuals in the private, public, and community and voluntary sectors.

The new scheme builds on IBEC’s experience with the Gradlink programme, but has a number of important enhancements. JobBridge participants will receive, through the Department of Social Protection, a single allowance consisting of €50 per week on top of their existing social welfare entitlements.

IBEC strongly supports the new national scheme as a way to provide those seeking employment with the opportunity to gain valuable work experience, maintain close links with the labour market and to enhance their skills and competencies through a quality internship opportunity. Therefore we no longer see a rationale for running a separate programme and plan to integrate Gradlink into the new scheme.

We would like to thank all those member companies who participated in Gradlink. This initiative has provided an important impetus to the Government creating a scaled-up national scheme. It also provided important learning and experience which we were able to feed into the design of JobBridge.

Full details of the new scheme are available at www.jobbridge.ie

Existing participants on the Gradlink programme

The Department of Social Protection has agreed that existing participants on the Gradlink programme may transform their placement into a JobBridge internship, provided that both they and their host organisation meet the eligibility criteria and agree to abide by the conditions of the new scheme.

However, the following conditions apply:

1. Existing Gradlink participants who have undertaken four months or less on their Gradlink placement will be allowed to receive a six month internship with their host organisation under JobBridge.
2. Existing Gradlink participants who have undertake more than four months of their Gradlink placement will be allowed to receive a three month internship with their host organisation under JobBridge.
3. Existing Gradlink participants who have undertaken more than eight months of their Gradlink placement will not be allowed to receive an internship opportunity with their existing host organisation.

This is a time limited offer and the transformation of Gradlink placements into internship will only be facilitated up to Wednesday August 31, 2011. Beyond this date Gradlink participants will not be allowed to transform their existing placement into an internship under the new scheme.

Further details for individuals and companies who wish to convert their existing IBEC Gradlink or FÁS WPP placement into a JobBridge internship are provided at: www.jobbridge.ie/ConvertWPP.aspx. They should contact 01 607 0750 or email wppconversions@fas.ie. Please note that it is up to individuals to apply for conversion before August 31, 2011.