‘Stephen’ - not his real name - has been unemployed since last October, and spoke to Newstalk Lunchtime about his experiences job seeking. He told Jonathan how he has been recommended jobs in Canada and Malaysia by the Department of Social Protection. Despite well over a decade of professional experience, he is also still being asked to take up JobBridge internships and new trades.

Stephen has worked as an engineer and a quantity surveyor. Altogether he has 15 years of experience and various qualifications under his belt, including a Masters degree in Construction & Project Management. He returned from Holland last year, saying “when I came back to Ireland I knew it would take a while to get work, but ideally I’d like to stay in Ireland since it's my home”.

Stephen says that many jobs he’s applying for are now being offered as JobBridge positions. He told Jonathan that he flew over to Ireland from Holland, taking a day off from his previous job, for an interview as a quantity surveyor. At the end of the interview, when discussing payment, he was asked “have you heard of JobBridge?”. Stephen was shocked when the details of the scheme were explained to him, telling the interviewer “you contacted me to fly over here for an interview, and now you’re telling me this job is effectively for free? That’s not for me, and thanks for wasting my time.”

Stephen has sent on a copy of a letter he received from the Department of Social Protection this week (which he first read while talking with a Lunchtime researcher), asking whether he was interested in a job in Canada:

In another incident, a welfare official asked him at a routine meeting whether he’d be interested in taking up welding as a trade, explaining “there’s a lot of work abroad at the moment, specifically in Malaysia, in deep-sea welding. I hear the money is quite good”. Stephen says that deep-sea welding is far removed from his qualifications and preferred jobs, and would take years of courses and further education to train for.

Stephen ultimately feels the Government and Department of Social Protection “just want me out of this country. They’d rather ship me off to Malaysia for deep-sea diving or a job over in Canada. I think they’re more interested in the statistics of unemployment, getting the rates down, having people doing JobBridge, working part-time, on a FAS course.” Stephen concluded “they just want to export me. I think it’s an absolute disgrace.”