A fair day's wage for a fair day’s work!
Disclaimer: This month’s blog is very much written from a Dutch point of view, but I can imagine a similar situation existing in other countries as well.
“I don't receive any internship compensation,” says a student teacher-education who has a side job in my local supermarket. This, shocking to me, casual comment got me thinking and searching the internet.
Being a student myself (a long time ago) I received a basic scholarship and additional funding enough to cover my monthly costs and also pay for a large part of my tuition fees and books. When I graduated, the interest on my student loans went through the roof (15%!), but luckily I had parents who could help; others were not so lucky and had to pay heavily for it for years to come.
The (Dutch) trade union CNV (well done!), with the research performed by Maurice de Hond (known Dutch pollster and entrepreneur), has presented results that paints a disturbing picture. For example, 57% of all interns do NOT receive an internship compensation, at most travelling expenses reimbursement. And the fact that 43% do receive compensation is largely due to the good figures, approx. 89%, for the Technology, Industry and Construction students (Chappeau!). Only approx. 36% of students who complete the full-time teacher education receive an internship allowance. Only Linguistics, History and Art students do “worse” at just under 36%.
A few more figures: Women do not receive an internship compensation in 55% of cases, for men this is 33%. And if women receive an internship compensation, this is often a lower amount, around 12% receive a compensation that is higher than €400/month, while for men this is around 26%.
Of course, this is by no means the whole picture: government internship compensation looks transparent and good, there are quite a few different learning/work pathways (including in healthcare), when a teacher-education student is in his 4th year, and permitted to teach without supervision, there is a compensation (isn’t that nice?!) and students nowadays (again) receive a basic scholarship/performance grant and additional funding (which is converted into a gift if they graduate within time), interest-bearing loan, tuition credit and travel products.
If I add it all up, a student could receive a maximum of approximately €1300, but all that is no abundance, especially when you consider that a student at the very least pays tuition fees (depending on the type of study, €1400-€2500/year), for books and often also has to provide for her/his own living independently. It's no wonder that all supermarkets and other shops are run by students! Or that there are many students who have built up enormous student debt during their study years.
So, from a financial point of view alone, it is very welcome for students who are going to do internships from, for example, their 3rd year of study, to receive compensation for this.
A few final figures from the CNV research: 42% of the interns were given tasks that full-fledged employees also do, 30% performed tasks that had nothing to do with the training, and for 25% of the students there was unsufficient attention for the learning goals or even no guidance at all and 36% did not even have an internship contract (only mandatory in Netherlands under 16 years).
I find all this shocking, because this is about the future of our country, whether it is in education, the military, healthcare, art, culture or industry. With so many necessary activities for study and work, it is a miracle that they even find the time for the equally necessary acquisition of social skills and increasing (social) networks. And I dare say that it is a form of exploitation when students provide work and assistance through internships and then receive nothing in return. And while the government does provide students with an internship compensation for its own organisation, this is below par for (also government) education. The industry has, by exception I would almost say, grasped it this time!
And apparently it still pays off more to learn the technical and industrial professions than to become the teacher who trains them... let alone the arts and culture education, which apparantly you really must want it.
The Netherlands is aging and dejuvenating, the labour potential is decreasing, there is a huge demand for new (young) people and challenges in recruiting and retaining talent in times of scarcity in all labour segments. Now, money is not everything when it comes to career choice (fortunately not), but it does help. You can make as many passionate PR videos as you like to appeal to students for teacher careers, but if it does not or insufficiently lead to “wage for work” there are many other attractive career choices to be made. And prospective students can easily find the necessary information online or from each other these days.
And what message are we actually sending to our young people: you can study, but you have to put a disproportionate (in my opinion) amount of your own energy and money into it. It should be that young people, regardless of their parents' salaries, receive sufficient income to gain the widest possible experience during the most formative period of their lives. I think that as a society it should be worth something to us that young people are trained and to develop to become qualified, skilled, creative, innovative and socially adept adults, which we can enjoy for decades to come. You could choose to give them a benefit (linking to national minimum wage) and, for example, combine this (mandatory) with social internships or work (for example a maximum of 10 hours per week) up to, at least, the internship periods, in which the internship compensation must be equal to the national minimum wage. And where necessary, because not every agency or company has the needed financial resources, reimbursement by the government (after proper assessment).
The aim should be to correct the imbalance in internship compensation. Every student must receive at least the same internship compensation! There should be no difference between education or vocational education levels, no difference between women and men, no difference between people with and without disabilities, no difference between Industry, Education and Culture sectors. Every student has her/his value and deserves an investment in their future!
I call on all politicians, trade unions, educational institutions, employers' organisations and society to make regulations and agreements on this in 2025.
Furthermore, I am of the opinion that the students (in Netherlands) who had to participate in the education “Loan System (the student financial system of 2015-2023, causing enormous debts for students) will be retroactively and fully compensated to receive the basic scholarship and supplementary funding, under the same conditions as current students.
“I don't receive any internship compensation,” says a student teacher-education who has a side job in my local supermarket. This, shocking to me, casual comment got me thinking and searching the internet.
Being a student myself (a long time ago) I received a basic scholarship and additional funding enough to cover my monthly costs and also pay for a large part of my tuition fees and books. When I graduated, the interest on my student loans went through the roof (15%!), but luckily I had parents who could help; others were not so lucky and had to pay heavily for it for years to come.
The (Dutch) trade union CNV (well done!), with the research performed by Maurice de Hond (known Dutch pollster and entrepreneur), has presented results that paints a disturbing picture. For example, 57% of all interns do NOT receive an internship compensation, at most travelling expenses reimbursement. And the fact that 43% do receive compensation is largely due to the good figures, approx. 89%, for the Technology, Industry and Construction students (Chappeau!). Only approx. 36% of students who complete the full-time teacher education receive an internship allowance. Only Linguistics, History and Art students do “worse” at just under 36%.
A few more figures: Women do not receive an internship compensation in 55% of cases, for men this is 33%. And if women receive an internship compensation, this is often a lower amount, around 12% receive a compensation that is higher than €400/month, while for men this is around 26%.
Of course, this is by no means the whole picture: government internship compensation looks transparent and good, there are quite a few different learning/work pathways (including in healthcare), when a teacher-education student is in his 4th year, and permitted to teach without supervision, there is a compensation (isn’t that nice?!) and students nowadays (again) receive a basic scholarship/performance grant and additional funding (which is converted into a gift if they graduate within time), interest-bearing loan, tuition credit and travel products.
If I add it all up, a student could receive a maximum of approximately €1300, but all that is no abundance, especially when you consider that a student at the very least pays tuition fees (depending on the type of study, €1400-€2500/year), for books and often also has to provide for her/his own living independently. It's no wonder that all supermarkets and other shops are run by students! Or that there are many students who have built up enormous student debt during their study years.
So, from a financial point of view alone, it is very welcome for students who are going to do internships from, for example, their 3rd year of study, to receive compensation for this.
A few final figures from the CNV research: 42% of the interns were given tasks that full-fledged employees also do, 30% performed tasks that had nothing to do with the training, and for 25% of the students there was unsufficient attention for the learning goals or even no guidance at all and 36% did not even have an internship contract (only mandatory in Netherlands under 16 years).
I find all this shocking, because this is about the future of our country, whether it is in education, the military, healthcare, art, culture or industry. With so many necessary activities for study and work, it is a miracle that they even find the time for the equally necessary acquisition of social skills and increasing (social) networks. And I dare say that it is a form of exploitation when students provide work and assistance through internships and then receive nothing in return. And while the government does provide students with an internship compensation for its own organisation, this is below par for (also government) education. The industry has, by exception I would almost say, grasped it this time!
And apparently it still pays off more to learn the technical and industrial professions than to become the teacher who trains them... let alone the arts and culture education, which apparantly you really must want it.
The Netherlands is aging and dejuvenating, the labour potential is decreasing, there is a huge demand for new (young) people and challenges in recruiting and retaining talent in times of scarcity in all labour segments. Now, money is not everything when it comes to career choice (fortunately not), but it does help. You can make as many passionate PR videos as you like to appeal to students for teacher careers, but if it does not or insufficiently lead to “wage for work” there are many other attractive career choices to be made. And prospective students can easily find the necessary information online or from each other these days.
And what message are we actually sending to our young people: you can study, but you have to put a disproportionate (in my opinion) amount of your own energy and money into it. It should be that young people, regardless of their parents' salaries, receive sufficient income to gain the widest possible experience during the most formative period of their lives. I think that as a society it should be worth something to us that young people are trained and to develop to become qualified, skilled, creative, innovative and socially adept adults, which we can enjoy for decades to come. You could choose to give them a benefit (linking to national minimum wage) and, for example, combine this (mandatory) with social internships or work (for example a maximum of 10 hours per week) up to, at least, the internship periods, in which the internship compensation must be equal to the national minimum wage. And where necessary, because not every agency or company has the needed financial resources, reimbursement by the government (after proper assessment).
The aim should be to correct the imbalance in internship compensation. Every student must receive at least the same internship compensation! There should be no difference between education or vocational education levels, no difference between women and men, no difference between people with and without disabilities, no difference between Industry, Education and Culture sectors. Every student has her/his value and deserves an investment in their future!
I call on all politicians, trade unions, educational institutions, employers' organisations and society to make regulations and agreements on this in 2025.
Furthermore, I am of the opinion that the students (in Netherlands) who had to participate in the education “Loan System (the student financial system of 2015-2023, causing enormous debts for students) will be retroactively and fully compensated to receive the basic scholarship and supplementary funding, under the same conditions as current students.
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