GRADUATES WHO completed their studies last year will be offered the opportunity of work experience in companies around the country under an initiative launched by employers’ group Ibec yesterday.
The new “Gradlink” programme will seek to match graduates in particular disciplines with specific companies for a nine-month placement.
The Department of Social and Family Affairs has agreed that participants on the programme will remain eligible for social welfare benefits.
Ibec said that approximately 60,000 graduates completed their studies in 2009 and that while some of these would return to education, a significant number would be seeking employment.
It said that more than 74,000 people under the age of 25 were unemployed and that a great many had third-level qualifications.
An Ibec spokesman added that to date over 50 firms had signed up to the programme and 20 graduates had been placed already.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin said that the Ibec scheme represented “an important response to the difficulties facing recent graduates attempting to enter the labour market”.
