It gives me great pleasure to be here in Facebook today to launch JobBridge - the National Internship Scheme.
I’m delighted to see people from so many different sectors here this morning: many leaders from the business world, as well as from the public service and the community and voluntary sectors.
This wide representation is important to me. Because I believe that we need a collective national 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.
Establishing a National Internship Scheme is a flagship commitment of the Government’s Job Initiative.
I would like to congratulate Minister Joan Burton and her officials for getting it up-and-running so quickly.
I would also like to thank Martin Murphy of Hewlett Packard for his support, and I know he will be a strong advocate for the initiative within the business sector.
The Jobs Initiative aims to help get Ireland back on the road to recovery.
We want to start restoring confidence in the economy.
That is why, from the end of this week, there will be a new lower rate of VAT on tourism-related services, and employers PRSI will be halved on jobs paying up to €356 per week.
We also want to restore hope and confidence in people who currently find themselves out of employment.
I believe that the Government has a duty to engage closely with people who have lost their jobs – ensuring that they have opportunities to develop their skills and gain work experience.
Above all, we need to help people on the Live Register maintain their links with the labour market, to do everything we can to support their prospects of securing employment.
That is why the Jobs Initiative contains 20,900 education, training and work experience places for the unemployed.
As part of this, JobBridge aims to provide 5,000 quality internship places over the next two years.
It is an innovative new scheme – which is being introduced on a temporary basis in response to the unemployment crisis facing the country.
I believe it will provide unemployed graduates and others with a pathway back to work – allowing them to gain work experience and to demonstrate what they have to offer employers.
It complements another element of the Government’s Jobs Initiative – the Springboard programme.
Springboard provides over 200 courses on a part-time basis. These are specifically designed to meet skills needs in growth areas in our economy. Colleges are actively recruiting people at the moment for almost 6,000 places available, free-of charge, to jobseekers.
JobBridge and Springboard are two important programmes to help meet the needs of both new graduates and more experienced workers who need new skills to change career.
The success of JobBridge is dependent on the people who are gathered here this morning and the rest of your sectors. We need all organisations to actively participate in this programme. Overcoming this jobs crisis will be a truly national effort and I’m calling on all those who can, to get involved.
I would encourage you to be proactive in engaging with JobBridge and offering quality internship opportunities.
For you this is an opportunity to give people a chance to prove themselves – and to bring some new people and ideas into your organization.
For interns it can be a career, and life, changing opportunity. Aristotle said that "One must learn by doing the thing" and I hope that all interns who participate with the JobBridge programme will continue their workplace learning outside of the classroom.
Hopefully the experience gained by interns will help them land ‘that job’ they have worked so hard for and that in years to come they might be well placed to return the favour to a new generation of graduates.
In conclusion, I want to thank you all for coming here this morning.
I hope that many of you will participate in JobBridge over the coming months and that we can make this a real national success story of which everyone can be proud.
I will now invite Martin Murphy to say a few words.