The National Internship Scheme has proved such a success that it will be extended into 2013 and the number of places have been increased by 1000 in order to keep up with demand. In the past ten months alone, over 6,800 internships have been provided through private enterprises, the public service and voluntary groups.
The scheme will also be extended at the end of May to include those in receipt of One Parent Family Payment and Disability Allowance. The success of the scheme can be seen when you examine the figures which show that of the 2,000 people who have completed the scheme, 797 have gone into full time employment and the feedback from participants is also positive with 93% of interns surveyed said they would recommend the scheme to a friend.
For further information on the National Internship Scheme, visit http://www.jobbridge.ie/
ConnectIreland was appointed by the IDA as part of the 2012 Action for Jobs. It is a referral programme aimed at creating new jobs in Ireland by targeting introductions and referrals from the Irish Diaspora from all across the world.
The programme is certainly innovative and aims to promote Ireland as the perfect location for high tech international companies. Recent years has seen a flood of high profile companies such as LinkedIn, Google, eBay, Microsoft, HP, Intel, Siemens, Pfizer and Boston Scientific set up in Ireland and the aim it to attract even more of these high calibre companies to set up bases here.
How will the scheme work?
The aim is to incentivise and reward the introductions between ConnectIreland and a connection in a company that is expanding internationally.