Improving the quality of traineeships in the EU - guide

20 March 2024
by eub2 -- last modified 20 March 2024

The European Commission set out proposals on 20 March to improve working conditions for trainees, including pay, inclusiveness and quality of traineeships in the EU.

Why is the Commission coming forward with new initiatives to improve the quality of traineeships?

Traineeships should be open to all young people, regardless of their socio-economic background, and should provide valuable experience to help them enter the labour market.

The 2014 Quality Framework for Traineeships outlines 21 principles for Member States to ensure high-quality traineeships, including by providing written traineeship agreements, clearly defined learning objectives, and transparent information on remuneration and social protection.

A Commission evaluation showed that the existing framework helps Member States ensure valuable professional experiences for young people. It highlighted the framework's positive impact, particularly in countries with less developed traineeship systems, and confirmed the relevance of the EU framework. Nevertheless, it also noted there is room for improvement in applying, monitoring and enforcing the framework's quality principles. In addition, the European Parliament in its June 2023 resolution, as well EU citizens through the Conference on the Future of Europe called on the Commission to update the EU framework to ensure quality traineeships.

Today the Commission is proposing a set of initiatives to ensure quality traineeships. The proposed Directive addresses the enforcement of working conditions of trainees who have a worker status under EU case law, national provisions and collective agreements, and combats employment relationships disguised as traineeships. The proposed reinforced Council Recommendation tackles issues linked to traineeships, such as fair remuneration, social protection and access to traineeships. It applies to all trainees, regardless of their employment status or the type of traineeship they are partaking in.

What is new in the package presented?

Combined, the newly proposed Directive and the reinforced Quality Framework for Traineeships will improve the use, quality and access to traineeships by:

• improving the quality of traineeships through better working conditions and improved learning content, recommending that all traineeships should be paid fairly.
• supporting trainees' access to their labour rights under both EU and national law as well as preventing employers from disguising regular employment relationships as traineeships.
• recommending access to adequate social protection for trainees, in line with Member State national legislation.
• supporting young people's access to stable careers through better guidance and support, both during and after their traineeships.
• promoting equal access to traineeships for people in vulnerable situations, as well as making cross-border and remote/hybrid traineeships easier to access.

What do the Commission's initiatives say on the issue of pay?

The Commission fully supports the objective of improving the quality of traineeships, including on fair remuneration. Today's package will help tackle the issue of quality traineeships in a comprehensive way, while respecting the limits of EU competence.

The proposed Directive introduces the principle of non-discrimination for trainees who are considered as "workers" under European Union case law, national provisions and collective agreements. It ensures that, as a rule, trainees are not treated less favourably regarding working conditions, such as pay, compared to regular employees of the same employer, unless there are objective grounds for differential treatment.

The reinforced Recommendation calls on Member States to ensure that all trainees are fairly paid.

What else is the Commission doing to support employment of young people?

The EU supports young people through a series of policy programmes, including:

• The Youth Guarantee scheme, including the Youth Employment Initiative, has had a transformative effect on EU labour markets. Since 2014, approximately 50 million young people who were once registered in Youth Guarantee schemes have received an offer of employment, continued education, apprenticeship and/or traineeship.
• The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) is the EU's main instrument to invest in people, including support to youth employment. In the 2021-2027 programming period, Member States are investing around €17.3 billion from the ESF+ in youth employment.
• The new initiative ALMA (Aim, Learn, Master, Achieve) targets disadvantaged young people who are not in employment, education or training.
•  The Recovery and Resilience Plans of EU Member States focus on policies for the next generation as one of their six pillars, in line with the reinforced Youth Guarantee. Member States have committed in their national plans to invest €6.1 billion in youth employment.
• Erasmus+ allocates funding for education and training initiatives for young people. This includes reinforcing the quality of informal education (i.e., learning from daily life experience and the surrounding environment) and of non-formal learning (i.e., outside the formal education system). Erasmus+ also offers the opportunity for providers of vocational education and training (VET) and other organisations active in the field of VET to organise learning mobility activities for VET learners and staff.

Proposed Directive

Proposed Council Recommendation

Impact assessment

Commission page on traineeships

Source: European Commission