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JobBridge, the National Internship Scheme, was launched today by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Social Protection Minister Joan Burton. The scheme provides internship placements to give people without jobs a "hand up". Companies which have endorsed the scheme include Dawn Foods, KPMG, Arthur Cox, Mercury Engineering, Hertz, ESB and Aer Lingus among others.

At the launch, Taoiseach Enda Kenny spoke of the benefits of the scheme in getting people back to work...

The Government is committed to getting Ireland back to work and JobBridge is an important part of that effort. Establishing a National Internship Scheme was a flagship commitment in last month’s Job Initiative. I believe that we need a collective effort by all sectors of society to tackle the challenges facing the country. JobBridge is just such a collective effort – with the goal of ensuring that we offer people the opportunity to gain work experience through a quality internship.

Speaking at the launch, Minister Burton said she was very encouraged by the positive feedback from many employers to the scheme...

Already Mr. Murphy and Mr. Sean O’Driscoll, Chief Executive of Glen Dimplex as private sector champions of JobBridge have confirmed the commitment of a large number of leading Irish and multinational companies to JobBridge.

There is strong interest in participating in an initiative such as JobBridge. We have already received 500 expressions of interests from organisations offering approximately 1,000 internship opportunities. Over 320 of the members of ISME are committed to JobBridge with a pledge of over 590 internship places and some 288 of the over 320 members will have their vacancies available within 3 months.

Read the full press release here.

Read the Taoiseach's full speech from the launch here.

The Taoiseach's speech from the launch can be viewed below

Watch the video of the Taoiseach's doorstep at the JobBridge launch below...