How MBO saw many internships and apprenticeships disappear
As a result of the corona crisis, thousands of MBO students could not go to their internship in the months before the holiday. There is also a threat of a great shortage of internships and training companies for the new academic year. The Education Magazine made an inventory of developments until the summer, and also looks ahead.
Image: Angeliek de Jonge
Let's not fall into the pitfalls of the past. After this crisis, we have our
young people desperately need to enter the labor market again and that is why they should be able to continue their vocational training now. ' In mid-May Remco Meijerink, chairman of the board of Roc Friese Poort, expressed his concerns about the shortage of internships and apprenticeships for MBO students in an opinion article in the Leeuwarder Courant.
As a the Education Magazine asks him by e-mail if he is willing to explain his concerns further, he calls that same morning. “Yes, I am very concerned,” says Meijerink. “About the students who have lost their internship since mid-March, but especially about the future internships and apprenticeships that will be jeopardized if this corona crisis continues for another year. I remember well that during the credit crunch in 2008-2009, we watched as construction companies sent their trainees home because the water was up to their lips. This is understandable, because you cannot retain interns in the event of redundancies, but that did mean that many construction training courses were decimated at the time. You shouldn't think that after the corona crisis this also applies to elderly care. ”
I remember well that during the credit crisis in 2008-2009 we watched construction companies send their trainees home because they were up to their lips
After the Netherlands went into lockdown in mid-March, thousands of MBO students were told that they were no longer welcome at their internship. Especially in the segments order & safety, shop craft, retail, hospitality, tourism and aviation were hit hard, according to figures from Cooperation Organization Vocational Education Industry *As of August 6, the shortage is almost 21.000 internships and apprenticeships. The greatest shortages are in the market segments order and safety (2.474 internships and 205 apprenticeships), welfare (1.921 internships and 81 apprenticeships), ICT (1.691 internships and 19 apprenticeships) and care (1.389 internships and 147 apprenticeships). Look for the most current data for the 2020/2021 school year at SBB. (SBB). For MBO students who do the vocational training program (BOL), there are more than 27 thousand fewer internships compared to last year, a decrease of almost 20 percent. There are also significantly fewer apprenticeships for students on the vocational training pathway (BBL) who have an employment contract with a work placement company and go to school one day a week (-15 percent). “What we also see,” says Hannie Vlug, CEO of SBB, “is that in April 2020 half fewer internships and apprenticeships were started compared to April 2019. In May this had already risen to 64 percent. And when you consider that research shows that three quarters of the BBL students will eventually work at the same training company after their training, you know that you will have a problem. ”
Vlug expects that companies will soon be unable to attract enough professionals. At the same time she sees an increase in youth unemployment. “This is already evident from figures from the UWV. The vast majority of unemployment insurance applications come from people under 35 years old. ”
Apprenticeships
The fact that accredited training companies are now on the spot when it comes to hiring BBL employees is probably due to the uncertain time in which companies try to limit financial risks. Vlug: “In recent months, companies with loss of turnover have been able to rely on the Temporary Emergency Bridging Measure for Employment, a substantial allowance that allows employers to continue to pay their employees with a permanent and flexible contract. The point is that as an employer you cannot rely on this scheme if you hire someone new. That could partly explain the decline of 60 percent. ”
Vlug also thinks that the Practice Learning subsidy scheme, which the Ministry of Education uses to encourage accredited training companies to offer more apprenticeships, can play a decisive role.
len. “At the moment, a work placement company receives around 2200 euros in subsidy per apprenticeship job, but the costs
of such an apprenticeship is for a work placement company about 11 thousand euros. With a financial
As a government, you can steer that incentive. "
At the moment, a training company receives about 2200 euros subsidy per training job, but the costs
of such an apprenticeship are approximately 11 thousand euros for a work placement company
That is why she is so pleased with the government's pledge of 30 million euros, two-thirds of which will be reserved for the Practice Clothes subsidy scheme. The remaining 10 million euros, which the cabinet came up with in mid-May, will be divided among the other eleven actions that the SBB has formulated in the context of the 'Action plan for internships and apprenticeships'. In addition to a national campaign on radio and TV, calling on training companies to keep trainees in work and the launch of the new website Leerbaanmarkt.nl, SBB also invests in identifying internships and apprenticeships in schools.
Solutions
Not only in cooperation organizations and in boardrooms there are concerns about the shortage of internships and apprenticeships, but also in the workplace of MBO institutions hard thought is given to solutions to allow students to gain the necessary practical experience despite the scarcity. Such as with the training employee event organization of Mbo Utrecht.
“When all events were canceled in mid-March, almost all of our third-year students who were doing an internship at that time ended up at home,” says Mieke Viering, coordinator of practical training. “And the near future does not seem to look good for the event world, although some small-scale projects are getting off the ground here and there, but
ganisations are very careful. ” From the start of the lockdown, Viering and her colleagues have been working with internship companies to catch up with the practice of the virtual school so that they
their guidance can work on projects and assignments. And that will be expanded further.
"In this way we also keep in touch with the internship companies and that is very important if the sector can really start up again in the future."
Of my 29 second-year students who are doing the teaching assistant and pedagogical assistant training, more than half have lost their internship
Furthermore, Mbo Utrecht is considering whether interns with this broad training outside the events-
sector can do an internship or that internship positions may be shared. “We have programs that do not have any problems, such as automotive and ICT”, says Thea Nabring, internship supervisor for care and welfare at Roc A12 in Ede, “but of my 29 second-year students who do the training as a teaching assistant and pedagogical assistant, more than half lost their internship. ” Finding an internship for the new academic year also proves difficult because schools and day care centers do not want to admit too many 'strangers' due to the risk of contamination. "Of course we are in close contact with our internship schools, but in the end these organizations themselves determine whether they consider it responsible for trainees to work."
Nabring does not expect major study delays for the students whose internships have been unsuccessful in recent months. Perhaps this applies to nursing and care students, for example. "Some medical procedures, such as inserting a catheter, you only really learn in practice." Hence, the school has been emphasizing such actions since mid-June, since the school reopened.
The biggest concern at Roc A12 is also the new academic year 2020/2021. "In anticipation of this, we asked our second-year students if they would like to check at their internship school if they could come there."
I understand, safety is important, but please think if something is not possible for our trainees. It is about the future of the Netherlands
At Roc Friese Poort, alternatives are also being considered in case there are insufficient specific internships. “Imagine that you can train 15 of the 'ideal' 25 work processes in a less obvious internship, then that could also be a good option,” says Meijerink. "Then a catering student in a hospital kitchen might be able to learn a lot after all." For internship companies that, despite the relaxation of the past period, still do not want to receive interns, the chairman of the board of Friese Poort has a message: “I understand, safety is important, but please, think about whether there is anything possible for our interns . It's about the future of the Netherlands. ”
This article appeared in the July issue of the Onderwijsblad.
