Laundry Porter Internship??

Lillialani

I was browsing through the list of FÁS jobs today, throughout the country. Like I always do and come across something in the Mayo section of the site.

Laundry & Accommodation Porter was advertised which I took a look at. Finding out it was an intern-ship has actually annoyed me. Having looked up the hotel on google and seen the prices they actually charge people to stay there for a night, I am slightly appalled. The article reads as follows:

"The intern will gain practical experience in working in a hotel environment in the Accommodation and Laundry departments. The intern will receive formal/informal training in the following working the laundry equipment, chemical training and accommodation duties as a hotel porter for accommodation.They will learn how to work, maintain and operate all the laundry equipment and become familiar with the dosage system that is required for each machine. As part of the accommodation porter role that will be trained in general maintenance and servicing the lock systems and bedrooms safes for the guest bedrooms. On completion the intern will have attained skills in working in a four star hotel and trained as a hotels porter for the laundry and accommodation departments."

A four star hotel trying to get interns to do a 39 hour week? What can interns learn in a laundry room and what about the paid staff that was there before hand? Surely this does not meet the standards of what the intern-ship is supposed to be about? Maybe I am missing something here but a self confessed four star hotel should surely be employing people to get them off of the register permanently rather than paying nothing towards an intern-ship. I find myself a hard worker and I am out of work due to a redundancy but this made my blood boil. Maybe its just me but I am finding this intern-ship stuff rather laughable at the moment. I would be interested in other opinions.

yop

Dont name the hotel

Mickeroo

There's a lot of cynical internships like that around, pure exploitation imo. An internship should be for a job that actually benefits the applicants own qualifications.

yop

Mickeroo wrote: »

There's a lot of cynical internships like that around, pure exploitation imo. An internship should be for a job that actually benefits the applicants own qualifications.

Its rife unfortunately, have seen companies looking for software developers with 5 years experience on an internship.....
On the flip side of that I have seen 2 companies take in interns and the crap attitude of the interns is incredible, they are given a chance to get some experience but these 2 people only did it to keep the dole happy.

On the flip of the flip side (!), I also know a girl who did very well on her internship and now has a good full-time job based on the experience and references she got.

Mickeroo

yop wrote: »

Its rife unfortunately, have seen companies looking for software developers with 5 years experience on an internship.....
On the flip side of that I have seen 2 companies take in interns and the crap attitude of the interns is incredible, they are given a chance to get some experience but these 2 people only did it to keep the dole happy.

On the flip of the flip side (!), I also know a girl who did very well on her internship and now has a good full-time job based on the experience and references she got.

Yeah it goes both ways in that regard for sure. A friend of mine also managed to get an accounting job through his internship this year so there are plenty of good ones out there. Its the ones for basic non-qualified jobs I can't get my head around, I swear I saw one that was for stacking shelves in a supermarket. How FAS ok's the likes of those I can't understand.

yop

Mickeroo wrote: »

Yeah it goes both ways in that regard for sure. A friend of mine also managed to get an accounting job through his internship this year so there are plenty of good ones out there. Its the ones for basic non-qualified jobs I can't get my head around, I swear I saw one that was for stacking shelves in a supermarket. How FAS ok's the likes of those I can't understand.

Its all in the name

gizmo555

Mickeroo wrote: »

Yeah it goes both ways in that regard for sure. A friend of mine also managed to get an accounting job through his internship this year so there are plenty of good ones out there. Its the ones for basic non-qualified jobs I can't get my head around, I swear I saw one that was for stacking shelves in a supermarket. How FAS ok's the likes of those I can't understand.

Because it's a way of massaging the unemployment statistics, which has always been a key - albeit not officially acknowledged - function of FAS.

While people are doing internships, training courses, community employment schemes, etc, they're off the live register.