A JobBridge to nowhere: The National Internship Scheme as fast policy leading to bad policy

Abstract

JobBridge, the Irish National Internship Scheme, was a labour activation measure launched in July 2011, during a period of extreme economic crisis, and was marketed as a chance for young people to gain career experience in quality work placements. Over 60 per cent of participants found employment after leaving the scheme but it suffered from high deadweight losses and was widely criticised as exploitative during its existence. This was quite predictable, which leaves the puzzle as to why JobBridge was designed without more regulations to protect the entry-level jobs market and the interests of the unemployed? This paper will trace the processes behind this suboptimal decision-making. First, it will show the institutional factors influencing poor policy decisions on labour activation. Then it will explain the main incentives behind an under-regulated programme, which were the need to develop a workable scheme as quickly as possible and to do this without significant funding. Finally, it will show how the decision-making process prioritised the interests of the Labour Party, government, business and the concerned parents of unemployed youth over the interests of the unemployed.

Trading labor for experience: The role of unpaid internships in shaping Active Labor Market Policies in Ireland since the Great Recession

“…Covid-19 was that crisis, and the DSP did repeat many of the policy decisions with WPEP that had prioritized open access for host organizations, minimal regulations, and no significant training elements. The ease of use (in terms of scalability) of the JobBridge model and its minimal running costs when compared to more social democratic activation measures make for a superficially attractive policy option during an employment crisis (Arlow, 2019). However, these types of low-regulation ALMPs often fail to deliver real value to unemployed youth.…”

“…88-89;O'Higgins, 2001, p. 111). 1 In the case of Ireland, evaluations of ALMPs have prioritized research on the controversial JobBridge scheme, which faced widespread public opposition due to the perception that the state-funded internships in the private and voluntary sector exploited the unemployed during a period of severe economic crisis (e.g., Arlow, 2019;McGrath, 2015;M. Murphy, 2015;O'Hogan, 2017).…”

“…They also need to be highly regulated to ensure a quality work experience and consistent training and to avoid exploitation by host organizations using ALMPs to replace paid employment. Less well‐regulated ALMPs, that trust the private sector to utilize schemes in good faith, lead to high levels of deadweight losses (those utilizing the scheme who have no need of it), substitution rates (paid jobs being replaced with scheme participants), and job displacement, which refers to job losses in companies who compete against host organizations that utilize ALMPs for cheap labor (Arlow, 2019, pp. 88–89; O'Higgins, 2001, p. 111) 1…”

“…In the case of Ireland, evaluations of ALMPs have prioritized research on the controversial JobBridge scheme, which faced widespread public opposition due to the perception that the state‐funded internships in the private and voluntary sector exploited the unemployed during a period of severe economic crisis (e.g., Arlow, 2019; McGrath, 2015; M. Murphy, 2015; O'Hogan, 2017). In terms of the wider eco‐system of Irish activation measures, M. P. Murphy (2016) demonstrates that since the Great Recession the design of Irish activation measures have followed a neoliberal model led by expert advice from the OECD and the Troika (which is the triumvirate of the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Commission that supervised the Irish “bailout”).…”

“…But has the growth of unpaid internships, in which unregulated host organizations receive free labor in return for ill-defined "experience," influenced the design of ALMPs targeted at unemployed youth? Recent research has shown that Irish policymakers have prioritized the interests of host organizations over unemployed youth in the design and implementation of some activation policies (Arlow, 2019). So, has this concern for the needs of host organizations also involved the embrace of a private-sector unpaid internship model by Irish policymakers?…”