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NEWS
December 2012/January 2013 www.esb.ie/em
From the archives
JOBBRIDGE SCHEME
ESB CONTINUES to recruit Job-Bridge interns throughout the Company and, in so doing, continues to support the Government National Internship Scheme to get unemployed people back into the workforce.
The scheme, which was launched in June 2011, aims to provide those seeking employment with the opportunity to gain work experience, maintain close links with the labour market and to enhance their skills and competencies through an internship opportunity, thereby improving their prospects of securing employment in the future. Successful applicants are offered work experience for six or nine months, along with an extra €50 per week in addition to their social welfare payments. ESB have been very supportive of this initiative and have to date recruited 78 interns into the Company. ESB has committed to taking up to 200 interns throughout the life of the scheme (1st July 2011 to 30th June 2013).
Of the 78 interns that have been in ESB, 29 have already completed their internship or finished their internship early to take up paid employment. Of those 29 people, 60% of them have found paid employment. This, undoubtedly, fits the purpose of the Job-Bridge scheme by making people more employable by giving them the opportunity to gain experience in their choice of career.
If someone you know is unemployed and could benefit from taking part in a JobBridge Internship Scheme with ESB, please check out: www.jobbridge.ie or www.candidatemanager.net/esbjobbridge.
Our success stories continue as follows:
Fintan O’Connell, who has a Master’s in Environmental Resource Management, commenced a nine-month internship as a Spatial Planning Technician with ESBI in July but terminated his internships early as he found paid employment with the Department of Environment working on an Environmental Legislation Project for the EU Presidency in 2013. Fintan found the internship to be a very positive experience and would have stayed the full duration of the internship if he hadn’t received the offer of a paid job. He felt he gained good experience in ESB and was involved in interesting work. When he went for the interview with the DoE, he felt he had an improved CV.
Simon Ryan an engineer, commenced a nine-month internship with ESB Networks in Project Management Support. The internship began in April 2012 but he terminated the internship early as he found paid employment with the Kirby Group. Kevin was extremely thankful to his mentor Kevin O’Connor and his ESB colleagues for all the encouragement, assistance and support that was given to him throughout his internship. He thoroughly enjoyed his time in ESB and was delighted with the experience he gained throughout the internship. He has no doubt that this experience lead to his success in getting a job.
Are Friends Electric? goes down a storm!
THE RECENT Are Friends Electric? ElectricAid benefit gig in the Button Factory was a huge and a well-appreciated success. The gig was the brainchild of Maurice O’Connor of BSC, who had an enthusiastic lieutenant in Tina Pittock of Telecoms. Tina roped in her posse of colleagues, friends and family to make everything happen, from posters, ticket sales, raffles and slide shows. The gig certainly pushed the buttons of a large and appreciative crowd. The venue was professional and authentically rock’n’roll, with superb lighting and sound systems, but roomy and comfortable for our friends, patrons and guests.
We kicked off with Maurice’s own band – the DADS, who gave us a solid but eclectic set, the real highlight being a beautiful version of Elbow’s Some Riot, a song unfamiliar to many but now burned into our consciousness.
Next up were GMT, featuring Gabriel O’Mara, Michael Deane and Tom Hannigan, late of ICT Group, BSC. They got the crowd humming and clapping to a set of soft rock classics, played to a superb standard.
Maurice’s son, Steve O’Connor, leads Coin, who burned through a high-octane set of covers of TRex, Bowie, and Dexy’s Midnight Runners, alongside strong original material. The joint was jumpin’ to the undoubted highlight, Dexy’s Gino, with a fantastic brass section filling out a big sound.
We Were Giants are lead by Colm and Stephen O’Loughlin, sons of James of Electric Ireland. Covers of Van Morrison and U2 were more than matched by wonderful original songs like Vampire and She Said. The crowd lapped it up, bayed for more, and bought their CDs, sold in aid of ElectricAid. WWG will be bigger, soon.
Every band gave their services pro-bono. We thank them all, and all who braved the miserable weather to make the gig a great event for every body, and for ElectricAid. Roll on next year!
INSURANCE HEAD OFFICE CHRISTMAS BUMPER DRAW 2012
OVER THE years ESB staff have demonstrated a genuine concern and immense generosity in support of our annual charity event. Last year just under €9000 was raised in a tremendous response from ESB staff both current and retired.
This year, we will be focusing on our legendary annual bumper draw. As always, there will be lots and lots of prizes, so keep an eye out for the emails and the notice boards for further details.
Tickets are on sale from 1st December. The draw will take place in the Head Office Restaurant on Wednesday 19th December at 1.30pm. You are all invited for complimentary tea/coffee and mince pies.
We understand that everyone is feeling the pinch, but we need your support now more than ever as we strive to spread a little bit of Christmas to the needy and homeless people in our community. If you would like to sponsor/donate a prize or purchase tickets, simply drop into the Staff Insurance Scheme Office, Room A237.
ESBI special feature
Innovation
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