The Jobbridge Scandal

sligoface

I think that since the internships and similar schemes are clearly replacing real jobs, and that it is the objective of dept of soc protection officers to put as many unemployed people on these schemes as possible, that the FAS website should be allowed to ONLY advertise internships. That way those of us who want and are qualified for real jobs can steer well clear. They should just remove themselves completely from pretending to link people to real work (without having to do 9 months free). Because they are just a joke at this point.

By having the positions side by side it supports the race to the bottom and forces paid work to compete with free labour. I know you can filter the lists with the dropdown menus but what happens is jobseekers go looking for jobs to apply for and instead are led down the garden path of internships dominating the ads. A lot of other recruitment sites have drawbacks too, and some sneak in the odd jobbridge ad as well, but right now having internships and jobs side by side is hurting jobseekers. I only check it in case a position may come up there that isnt on the other sites but it just disheartens me every time I see half the ads start with 'the intern will gain practical experience in... '


It undoubtedly affect workers wages and hours to have these ads there and have internships for every type of job going . Since this scheme has started I see a lot more ads for skilled work at minimum wage or TBA or TBC which means, 'to be low-balled', usually, and also lot more part time and temp work.

For example, where my friend works the business has 9 employees in 3 depts, in 2 depts there is one person on only on 3 or 4 day weeks while they have a jobbridge person on 5. If the owner gets really stuck he hires a temp until he gets someone from work experience or jobbridge to fill the position. He says they never have to hire someone for more than 3 months as that is the jobbridge cooling off period, there is a college nearby and no jobs around here, so he is never short of free labor longer than that.

My friend, who is one of the full timers, also has to mentor the free worker even though he knows the person won't be kept on, and when he is busy or out of the office the mentoring is left to the other lad who is in his dept who is only getting part time and makes less than 10 euro p/hr. So the part time worker has to sometimes train the intern so the intern can take hours that would be his and keep him from getting full time work or better pay, in the place he's been for 3 years. He says that beyond saying 'Good morning,' the owner never gets involved with the intern at all after the interview and in fact usually works less hours than the intern, taking either Mon or Fri off each week, and has had so many interns that he frequently calls them the wrong name.

These are the 'opportunities' we are being told we should be taking up. Feck that.

Iwasfrozen

shruikan2553 wrote: »

You need to have done an internship to get an internship. The point is to train the person. If the person already has experience then they are just working.

Jobs are in such high demand, and in such short supply they can get away with demanding experience for internships because they know they will get experienced applicants.

I mean why would a company pay to train an intern when they can hire an intern with experience?

mariaalice

This thread had been going on for nearly year and it become like ever decreasing circles with the same people posting up job bridge jobs that are maybe exploitive, while I have some doubts about the scheme its not going away and if you are still posting nearing a year later and still don't have a job or have had back to education got a degree and have never really had a job except for some vague work now and then...then maybe its not job bridge as such that is the problem( although it can be easy to be fixated on one thing as the problem ).

Anecdote time, someone close to me dropped out of college wasn't working.. went to the Uk with very little money immediately signed up for catering agency work despite having no experience, that was enough to keep going after a few months got a very good professional job that they would never have got here, because here they would be looking for a degree to do the
same job.

The jobs market is more completive here, because of the small size of the jobs market and also lots of the jobs are Dublin centric( not all though ) spending a year giving out about job bridge while not moving your situation on is not good.

Tarzana

No, it's important to keep highlighting who exploitative it can be on a high profile forum. People feel strongly about it and don't want to give up and just accept it. At least they are doing *something*. Fair play to your friend but everyone's situation is different, not everyone can up sticks.

mariaalice

Tarzana wrote: »

No, it's important to keep highlighting who exploitative it can be on a high profile forum. People feel strongly about it and don't want to give up and just accept it. At least they are doing *something*. Fair play to your friend but everyone's situation is different, not everyone can up sticks.

Highlighting what is exploitative is good, however constantly blaming job bridge as the reason you are not getting a job is not..more so if are not doing anything to move your situation on in some way.

DubVelo

mariaalice wrote: »

Highlighting what is exploitative is good, however constantly blaming job bridge as the reason you are not getting a job is not..more so if are not doing anything to move your situation on in some way.

Eh... you don't have to be unemployed to have an opinion about JobBridge.

Tarzana

mariaalice wrote: »

Highlighting what is exploitative is good, however constantly blaming job bridge as the reason you are not getting a job is not..more so if are not doing anything to move your situation on in some way.

I'm not unemployed, and others who post regularly on this thread aren't either.

I'm looking for experience in a new field. Every entry level position in it is a Jobbridge, pretty much. So, to just be in with a chance of getting one of these, I'd have to quit my job to sign on the dole. And there's no guarantee of even getting one. That's a little absurd, don't you think?

sligoface

mariaalice wrote: »

Highlighting what is exploitative is good, however constantly blaming job bridge as the reason you are not getting a job is not..more so if are not doing anything to move your situation on in some way.

But explain how a person who is paying for rent (even at just an average non-Dublin, sharing house rate of say 250 per month), electricity, heating, food, basic hygiene, refuse and internet, phone costs out of a sum of 188 a week, who already has a degree and experience as well, can 'move their situation on.' How can a person in that situatuon save the amount needed to move to Dublin or another country? How much would you say is needed and how long do you think it would take? Tell me what your master plan would be because I must be too dumb to figure out how to do it.

Jobbridge is not the only reason some of us cannot get a job, but it's making an already desperate situation even worse, it's plain as day. If it was scrapped more real jobs would be available. We're using free labor to skew unemployment statistics and either prop up failing businesses or increase profits for the successful ones. It's built on lies and exploitation.

I'm sure if I could get to London I'd have a job in no time as well. The fields I have skills and experience in are centralized there. But I can't save enough money due to the high cost of living and I can barely afford to mke ends meet now. The downturn in the economy is one thing but this free labour bullcrap is just kicking people who are down for the most part. The bad internships seem to greatly ounumber the good ones and the scheme is being used for the wrong reasons.

I can undestand people giving out about those who refuse to work or train, but for you to class people like myself who worked hard to get through college (while working p/t as well), who had employment until the recession destroyed the economy, who desperately want work, as people who are just moaners that are too lazy to take steps to 'move themselves on' is infuriating.

Getting my situation to where I could afford relocate would be like trying to build a sandcastle out of quicksand, and it's getting worse every year with the current government. And a whole generation of Irish having to flee this country yet again because our futures were robbed by corrupt banking and government wasters is beyond disgusting. But sure we mustn't grumble, right?

#Sligoface - Not that I'm keen on getting rid of you, but did you know that you can get your Unebployment Benefit paid for 13 weeks while you're in another EU country looking for work?
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/irish_social_welfare_system/claiming_a_social_welfare_payment/going_abroad_and_social_welfare_payments.html

coolemon

I'm on a Jobsbridge placement at the moment and I think it is nothing but exploitation. (I have certain reasons for staying with it that I wont go in to here).

But one thing that is overlooked and which has become apparent to me are the power relationships that are created. A type of entrapment.

For example, suppose it takes someone one to one and a half months to secure and begin an internship - and that is, I suspect, a conservative figure. And they do that internship for three to four months before it begins to sink in that the internship offers little in terms of experience (perhaps because they were misled, lied to or not informed during the interview and application stage).

However, the intern, who now realises his situation, has a dilemma.

If he leaves the exploitative placement he risks not getting a suitable or good reference - one of the only tangible benefits of the placement. A reference which is completely at the 'employers' discretion and will. If he decides to leave and does not get a good reference then he has wasted five and a half months (or seven months if he is looking for an alternative placement after leaving).

If he stays he completes the 9 months and gets a great reference for unpaid drudgery and exploitation.

So the intern is only left with two horrible options. Leave and possibly waste 7 months of their life. Or stay and be exploited for the sake of a reference.

^^^

This is my scenario (only for I have other unmentionable reasons for continuing it).

It is a type of entrapment.

And this ****e about "just leave" if you don't like it, or "do another" If you dont like it is theoretical nonsense which does not take into account real life factors. Wasted life, wasted months.

If one were in a paid position then there can be a similar power dynamic. But at least if you decide to leave you cant look back and say "what a complete waste" because you have been paid - unlike with an internship.

This scheme is destroying people. No doubt about it. Grinding them down. Devaluing them. Humiliating them.

Kai123

Many of the decent jobbridge internships are under the PGPP (Pilot Postgraduate Programme of Professional Practice).

Before, you had network placements which needed some experience but not much else. If I had my CCNA now, despite the benefit of learning networking skills hands-on in an internship, I need to be a post-grad now?

While Jobbridge is sucking up entry and now entry/mid level positions, how long do I have to be an intern before I make the better decision and get a job in the UK?

SCOOP 64

http://goo.gl/MhZe5c
Sure this is the firm that keeps asking for drivers every couple of months, now turned to jobbridge, cant see a mentor driving round with you ,you will be on your own after first day.

Xenji

SCOOP 64 wrote: »

http://goo.gl/MhZe5c
Sure this is the firm that keeps asking for drivers every couple of months, now turned to jobbridge, cant see a mentor driving round with you ,you will be on your own after first day.

Yet again you also would need do have done various Driver CPC courses depending on what sort of driving it it before they could even start mentoring you.

Views from a prospective "Employer" http://www.independent.ie/business/small-business/latest-news/farmer-defends-50-jobbridge-offer-for-a-30hour-week-collecting-potatoes-30410919.html

snubbleste

"The spud industry this year is a total disaster. I've just sent out a tonne of Maris Pipers for €160"
I'm not seeing cheap potatoes in the supermarket, y'know!

the flananator

Deleted User wrote: »

#Sligoface - Not that I'm keen on getting rid of you, but did you know that you can get your Unebployment Benefit paid for 13 weeks while you're in another EU country looking for work?
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/irish_social_welfare_system/claiming_a_social_welfare_payment/going_abroad_and_social_welfare_payments.html

Do you get the Irish amount or would you be getting the rate of dole offered in your new country of residence?

Phil_Lives

snubbleste wrote: »

"The spud industry this year is a total disaster. I've just sent out a tonne of Maris Pipers for €160"
I'm not seeing cheap potatoes in the supermarket, y'know!

Attention Prospective Potato Interns! My spud picking business is doing poorly but it'll make a great career for you and a path to wealth and riches for you, no doubt about it.

the flananator

the flananator wrote: »

Do you get the Irish amount or would you be getting the rate of dole offered in your new country of residence?

I'd imagine the Irish amount. It would only be worth doing if you were pretty sure of getting a job and had family in the area you could bunk down with and support you.

shruikan2553

Phil_Lives wrote: »

Attention Prospective Potato Interns! My spud picking business is doing poorly but it'll make a great career for you and a path to wealth and riches for you, no doubt about it.

It's OK, his struggling business is planning to keep you! Who needs job security?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Surely in order for an internship offered, there must be a person to mentor them in that position? I've just seen one for Marketing / Promotions Assistant, where there is NO Marketing/Promotions manager!

Xenji

Deleted User wrote: »

Surely in order for an internship offered, there must be a person to mentor them in that position? I've just seen one for Marketing / Promotions Assistant, where there is NO Marketing/Promotions manager!

Our manager keeps advertising for marketing and event management interns, when all they do is clerical work.

Xenji

Xenji wrote: »

Our manager keeps advertising for marketing and event management interns, when all they do is clerical work.

The thing is, this business needs a marketing/promotions manager, but doesn't want to pay one! I doubt they will be doing just clerical work.

CramCycle

Deleted User wrote: »

The thing is, this business needs a marketing/promotions manager, but doesn't want to pay one! I doubt they will be doing just clerical work.

First thing a marketing manager will tell them is to get their business off the jobbridge website, it doesn't look good, catch 22

Satriale

Just to point out this thread, in case the denizens of AH havent noticed already,

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057234927

directing to a list of Jobsbridge companies (just in case you prefer doing business with business that pay their staff ).

I particularly enjoyed this post, it really shows the spirit of the scheme.

Tarzana

Advertised as a job:

http://www.crossell.ie/jobs/junior-administrator/

Then as an internship:

http://www.crossell.ie/jobs/junior-administrator-internship/

Going by the wording in the second, it's Jobbridge.

charcoal blue

Satriale wrote: »

Just to point out this thread, in case the denizens of AH havent noticed already,

[...]

directing to a list of Jobsbridge companies (just in case you prefer doing business with business that pay their staff ).

I particularly enjoyed this post it really shows the spirit of the scheme.

Jobbridge Companies List seems to have been "disappeared" by Boards this afternoon....

Satriale

charcoal blue wrote: »

Jobbridge Companies List seems to have been "disappeared" by Boards this afternoon....

Thats a pity, you had a cracking thread going there...

i wont link it in case its not allowed but i believe the list can be accessed from the thread going on Politics.ie.

Xenji

charcoal blue wrote: »

Jobbridge Companies List seems to have been "disappeared" by Boards this afternoon....

Yeah it is gone, it would be nice to get a bit more clarity on its deletion as it is quite easy to prove these companies use the scheme.

charcoal blue

Xenji wrote: »

Yeah it is gone, it would be nice to get a bit more clarity on its deletion as it is quite easy to prove these companies use the scheme.

I'm guessing it's to do with one of the posts which mentioned names of a senator and their family members etc, which is fair enough I guess, especially if the information was incorrect. I'm not sure why the whole thread was removed though...

As Satriale said the spreadsheet link is up on Politics.ie or the original source faduda.ie/200-words/jobbridge-the-story-so-far