JobBridge is the National Internship Scheme that provides work experience placements for interns for a 6 or 9 month period.
Its aim is to help jobseekers gain valuable experience who are unable to get a job without experience. This can be as new entrants to the labour market after education or training or as unemployed candidates wishing to learn new skills.
Interns receive an allowance of €50 per week on top of their existing social welfare entitlement. This is payable for the period of their internship. While the unemployed person gains experience through the internship, it gives employers an opportunity to access and assess potential future employees.
The scheme is open to host organisations in the private, public (including commercial semi-state) or community and voluntary sectors who have a minimum of 1 full time employee who is employed for 30 hours or more per week (i.e. on payroll and subject to PAYE and PRSI).
The host organisation currently may not have vacancies in the area of activity in which the internship is offered and it should not displace an existing employee.
The number of internships that can be on offer at any one time is shown in the table below
| Number of Full Time Employees* | Number of Internships |
|---|---|
| 1-10 employees | 1 internship place |
| 11-20 employees | 3 internship places |
| 21-30 employees | 4 internship places |
| 30 + employees | 20% of the workforce to a maximum of 200 internships whichever is the smaller |
To be eligible for the scheme, interns must have a live claim and be currently in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance/ Jobseekers Benefit/ One Parent Family Payment/ Disability Allowance or signing for Social Insurance Contribution Credits for 3 months (78 days) or more in the last 6 months.
Further information on the scheme and the application procedure is available at www.jobbridge.ie
Nursing Home and homecare employers could perhaps use this scheme to good effect in non-operational areas such as administration, accounts or sales and marketing.
