Quality framework for traineeships

Key points

Traineeships have become an important gateway through which young people enter the labour market. To facilitate access to employment, traineeships should offer good quality learning content and adequate working conditions, and should not be a substitute for regular jobs or a precondition for a job placement.

The key conditions for better and more accessible traineeship schemes are:

• the recommendation should include traineeships linked to educational programmes and traineeships linked to active labour market policies;

• there should be more support for including traineeships in study curricula;

• a concerted effort should be made at both European and national levels to increase the availability of traineeships, especially in SMEs.

• in the case of "open-market" traineeships, a basic social security package should be provided;

• trainees should be provided with the necessary financial support;

• there is a need for accompanying guidelines, which would help Member States and host businesses/organisations understand possible ways of supporting training schemes via the EU and national funding sources already available and set up flexible traineeships systems with shared financial responsibility.

• greater provision of cross-border traineeship opportunities is needed to increase the intra-EU mobility of young people;

• there is a need for more robust data on, and evaluation of all types of, traineeship at both national and European levels;

• it is crucial to ensure that persons with disabilities are able to participate in traineeships;
• it is important to involve all relevant players (social partners, civil society organisations and, especially, youth organisations) in formulating guidelines and monitoring and evaluating implementation of the framework.