Only 4,000 on JobBridge scheme

A comparatively small number of people participate in the JobBridge training programme that Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar plans to replace after the summer, official figures published yesterday show.

The CSO figures from its Live Register publication show that JobBridge accounted for only 4,015, or 5%, of all the 77,885 people participating in all State-funded training programmes in April.

The so-called activation programmes are designed to help people from slipping into long-term unemployment and tackle the huge level of long-term unemployment that still scars the country following the construction and economic collapse eight years ago.