- Internships are an important stepping stone for young people entering the workforce, as they increase the likelihood of finding a job and reduce the risk of overqualification or skills mismatch. - However, the quality of internships is not always ensured due to a lack of regulation. Most successful internships occur through formal education programs, which provide structure and skills development, but open market internships are increasingly common. - According to a 2011 survey, many interns are not provided contracts or paid sufficiently to cover living costs. Few interns receive job offers after completing internships, suggesting employers may use interns as cheap labor rather than providing learning opportunities. - To address these issues, a European Quality Charter for

1. QualityInternships
EuropeanYouth Forum
Marianna Georgallis

2. Internships: the basics
• Valuablestepping stone into the world of work
• OECD estimatesthatwork-experience
– increases a graduates likelihood of finding a job
immediately upon graduation by 44%
– lessens the probability of over-qualification by 15%
– and reduces the occurrence of skills mismatch by 26%
• Expansion of internships in recent years
• However, quality not necessarily ensured due to
widespread absence of regulatory frameworks
• Usefulness and value of experience undermined

3. Internships: the facts
• Recent Commission
studyidentifiedthatmostsuccesfulinternships are
thosewhichtake place withinformaleducation
– More robust assurance of educational content and
skillsdevelopment
• But ‘open marketinternships’ are
increasinglywidespread
• 2011 EuropeanYouth Forum survey‘InternsRevealed’:
majority of internshipscarried out
outsideformaleducation
• Correlateswithfindings of recentEurobarometer

4. Internships: the facts
• Almost half of Europe’s youth have completed an internship
• 35% of internsnot provided with a written contract
• Only one third of internships are paid
– 58% of interns report that payment is not sufficient to cover basic
living costs:
• The majority of EU citizens with an internship experience are not
offered an employment contract when they finish their most recent
traineeship
• Gender differences:
– Men are 7 percentage points more likely than women to have had a
contract during their most internship
– Considerably more men are offered an employment contract at the
end of their internship than women (31% versus 24%).

5. A Cause for Concern
• Absence of adequate remuneration
– Restricts internship experience to specific group of young
people that have financial support
– Excludes further those already at disadvantaged socioeconomic position to enter labour market – NEETs
• Lack of employment opportunity following internship
– Points to lack of skills development/learning objectives of
internship
– Indicates widespread use of internships by employers as
cheaper/free labour force

6. EuropeanQuality Charter on
Internships and Apprenticeships
• Charter as a response to suchstatistics and to absence
of qualityframeworks on European and on national
levels
• Developed in cooperationwith
– youth organisations
– European Trade Union Confederation
– MEPs
• Supported by 30 MEPs and around 60 organisations
includinglatestsignatory Microsoft
• Outlines the basic minimum criteriathatinternship
providers must ensure

7. EuropeanQuality Charter on
Internships and Apprenticeships
• Educational objectives
– Contract
– Supervisor
– Mid-term evaluation and final evaluation
• Rights
– Access to social security systems
– The right to information – transparency in advertising
• Remuneration
– Reimbursement of costs of internship for those within education
– Remuneration for internships outside education which is no less than
national minimum wage or 60% median income (EU poverty line)
– Ensuring this is intergral in ensuring that internships are accessible to
all young people regardless of socio-economic background

8. Whatnow?
• Needfor astrongQuality Framework for Traineeshipsfrom
the European Commission to beagreed to by Member
States and effectivelyimplemented on the national level
• All providers of internships to commit to quality standards
and apply a clear code of conduct
• Internshipproviders to adopta system of certification to
ensure recognition of knowledge and
skillsacquiredthroughinternships
• Youth Forum work:workingcloselywith businesses to ensure
providers of internshipsunderstandwhatquality standards
are, and commit to them.

9. Thankyou!
Marianna Georgallis
marianna.georgallis@youthforum.org