Members of one of the country's largest teaching unions have been told they should not accept positions under the government's JobBridge internship programme.

The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) has urged newly qualified educators to avoid the scheme and instead build their experience through temporary work covering sick or maternity leave, the Irish Independent reports.

Spokesman for the group Peter Mullan was quoted by the publication as saying: "There are a number of reasons why people are against [the internship scheme], a lot of people think it's exploitative."

The programme, which was extended to include schools in September, offers unemployed individuals 50 euros a week in addition to welfare payments for taking part and is claimed by the Department of Education to be a valuable way for new graduates to increase their classroom experience.

However, it was criticised by teaching unions as an "insult" to the profession and has been described as a way to avoid paying teachers a full salary.

There may be a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the security of teaching posts at the current time, as a recent report in the Sunday Times suggested up to 2,000 positions may be lost as part of budget cuts.

Written by Donal Walsh
 

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