As reported by thejournal.ie a number of changes are to take place with the internship scheme JobBridge, as announced by Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, who said that a number of key recommendations from the Indecon report, which was published in April 2013, will be implemented.
These recommendations include;
- The waiving of the “cooling off” period for host organisations where the intern goes directly into employment;
- The Department’s quality and control checks have also been improved, with a significant increase in monitoring and site visits being conducted;
- Codes of practice and guidelines have been introduced for placements in key sectors such as childcare and health;
- Interns will be able to avail of three internships, up from two;
- The maximum duration of internships in this case will be extended from nine months to 18 months;
- Eligibility criteria are also being simplified, making them more visible in advance to all applicants;
- Plus, two pilot initiatives for non-graduate internships have been launched in the past six months
Minister Burton said that the number of internships taken up under JobBridge has now passed 20,000, and that JobBridge is averaging 800 internships every month since it launched just over two years ago, and its aim is to get to 950 internships a month.
