Twelve companies have been disqualified from taking on interns under JobBridge for breaking the scheme’s terms and conditions.
The companies were banned for breaching rules such as not completing the standard agreement, not providing appropriate mentoring, not adhering to compliance requirements and filling an existing job vacancy with an internship post.
The Department of Social Protection carried out detailed investigations before disqualifying the companies, which have not been named for data protection reasons.
A department spokeswoman said the firms’ actions should not detract from the scheme’s benefits.
“It is important to highlight that the overwhelming majority of companies are abiding by the terms and conditions of the scheme. In fact, over 7,300 host organisations have commenced interns and only 12 companies have been disqualified due to breaches of the scheme,” she said.
“The department has strong and robust monitoring controls in place and over 1,000 monitoring visits were conducted in 2012. Encouragingly, 97 per cent of these visits were of a satisfactory nature. Remedial action is taken in cases of non-compliance.”
Among the 7,346 host companies that have taken part in JobBridge are 14 out of the 16 Government departments. The two departments not to offer placements so far are the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Foreign Affairs.