Minister: 'Internship discrimination in secondary vocational education unacceptable'
MBO students with a non-Western background have to do a lot more to find an internship than their native Dutch fellow students. They have to send more application letters and search longer for an internship. 'Unacceptable', says Education Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven (D66), and incomprehensible given the shortages on the labor market.
Picture: National government
New figures from the Research Center for Education and the Labor Market (ROA), part of Maastricht University, show that internship discrimination still occurs, both in the BBL programs (vocational training pathway, students are employed by a recognized training company) and the bol training (vocational training pathway).
18 percent of BBL students with a non-Western background had to apply four or more times to secure a place. This percentage is a lot lower for native Dutch MBO students at 7 percent. The same trend can be seen in the BOL courses, according to the ROA. 24 percent of MBO students with a non-Western background had to apply more than three times for an internship, compared to 13 percent of native Dutch students.
Headscarf
68 percent of native MBO students succeed in finding an internship in one go and, at 48 percent, a lot less often among MBO students with a migration background. In her brief Van Engelshoven writes to the Lower House that girls with a headache are among the victims.
The minister wonders whether employers realize what they are doing. 'You break a dream, you damage people's feeling that there is room for them in society, and you undermine the image of a just society. Gorges are getting deeper and wider, 'she says the press release with her letter.
You break a dream, you damage people's sense that there is a place for them in society, and you undermine the image of a just society
The employers' organizations VNO-NCW and MKB Nederland early in the that discrimination occurs among employers. According to them, discrimination is not the only reason that MBO students with a migration background are less likely to find an internship. The employers see that this group of students more often opt for a study with less favorable labor market prospects, which means that the range of internships is smaller and they therefore have to apply more often. And they often lack a good network that can help them find internships.
Measures
Van Engelshoven wants to combat internship discrimination with several projects. For example, she wants to see whether short company visits where students and companies get to know each other can help. She also wants to work with employers on training courses in which unconscious prejudices are excluded and there must be more awareness among students and schools for the internship discrimination hotline. Between July and June 2018 there were 17 reports of discrimination.
