School boards make agreements not to pay graduate trainees
Independent teaching is a compulsory part of the final internship. Yet more than a third of education students in the Netherlands do not receive any compensation for their graduation internship. Some employers make mutual agreements not to pay.
De AOb held at the end of February a survey among more than 1500 students in teacher training. It showed that, prior to the final internship, 90 percent of the students do not receive a euro for compulsory internships. But also at the end of the course, when independent teaching is a permanent part of the curriculum, an internship allowance is far from a certainty.
In primary education (po), a quarter of the students who do a final internship receive no reimbursement. Almost half receive a lio salary for the graduation internship agreed in the collective labor agreement*The so-called lio contract has been around for a long time. It is a collective agreement for teachers (and teaching assistants) who are doing their final internship. They can be employed by the school board - with such an apprenticeship contract - and then receive roughly half a teacher's salary (or half a teaching assistant's salary) each month. Up to now it is not an obligation to opt for an apprenticeship contract. If it's up to the AOb that changes.. And almost 30 percent receive a different compensation, which varies enormously: from 68 euros to 900 euros per month. There are also trainees who are paid as teachers or teaching assistants, or who receive a one-off payment of a few hundred euros when the traineeship is completed.
More than a third of the students who do a final internship in secondary education (VO) or MBO do not receive anything for it. 15 percent receive a lio salary according to the collective labor agreement and almost 50 percent receive a different compensation. In secondary education and secondary vocational education, the other amounts mentioned for such 'other allowances' are also very different, ranging from 100 euros to students who are paid as teachers.
Avoid
The Education magazine received the tip that school boards in the province of Gelderland are making mutual agreements not to pay lio interns – another term for education students who do their final internship – and contacted those who completed the survey from the region in question. An intern who wishes to remain anonymous because of his future career says: “I've known since I've been walking around at teacher training college that the Conexus foundation is known for not paying any compensation. Many students therefore avoid the foundation.”
When asked, Conexus, Condor (10 primary schools), Sint Joseph schools (14 primary schools) and Stichting Primair Onderwijs Groesbeek (8 primary schools) let it be known that they have agreed with Hogeschool Arnhem Nijmegen (HAN) to give junior trainees a 'learning agreement' instead of an apprenticeship contract. At the end of their internship, the students receive a one-off allowance of 600 euros to compensate for the travel distance. “We deliberately do not want to compete with each other with public money, which is why all schools in the Nijmegen region opt for the same construction,” says Lucienne van den Brand, chairman of the board of Conexus.
When I pay half a teacher's salary to a junior high school student, half a teacher has to go
Andre de Jong, director of the Condor foundation, indicates that he does not have the budget for paid training places. “We are a small education foundation. It should come from the length or the width. If I pay a junior high school student half a teacher's salary, half a teacher will have to go.” Van den Brand of Conexus adds: “An internship allowance is just one of the ways in which you can invest in starting teachers. For example, we have intensive supervision during the first three years that someone works for us, because we know that the dropout rate among starters is so high.”
According to director De Jong, the choice was made some time ago for 'learning agreements' with students instead of 'apprenticeship agreements' to which the collective labor agreement applies. "I don't know the exact background of this, I wasn't working here yet, but that way we have the space to optimally guide the students."
Training together
In the Nijmegen region, the four foundations work together in the field of students and starters. know the Netherlands tens of that kind of Training Together networks. De Jong emphasizes that a graduate student at a Condor school has 'a real training place'. During the final internship he teaches independently, but 'is not responsible for the class'. De Jong: “A competent colleague is always present in the background for lios with an apprenticeship contract.”
What 'in the background' means and what the difference is for students with schools where a decent fee is paid, remains unclear. When they help out within Condor because of the teacher shortage – they do, provided they are suitable – they get a contract as a teaching assistant, says De Jong.
HAN only wants to respond in writing to the agreements made. Aly Smelt is director of the Education Academy and writes: 'In some cases, school boards do not offer an apprenticeship contract. Reasons for this are often due to the unavailability of formation space. However, that is a matter for the school board, not for HAN.' However, the university of applied sciences has noticed that 'perhaps due to pressure from the teacher shortage' more and more boards are willing to invest in future colleagues 'in the form of an apprenticeship contract'.
paid illegally
De AObsurvey mainly shows that paying lio trainees is very different everywhere in the Netherlands. A student from Noord-Holland says that the foundation where she did her graduation internship has a maximum of ten paid trainees within the board. Where there may not be two paid graduate trainees at the same school. “Then one person was paid and the other was not.”
The student continues: “I was paid somewhat illegally by the school. If someone was sick, I became the substitute on paper so that I got paid. While someone else within the school filled in. The foundation does not know that last bit.”
The fact that there would be no budget is a choice of the employer: not a fact
AObdirector Thijs Roovers becomes downright angry when he hears money as an argument for not paying graduation interns. “The fact that there would be no budget is a choice of the employer: not a fact. I would like to see from school boards that make these kinds of agreements how much money they have hoarded on the shelf.”
Roovers: “It is absurd and outdated that a lio contract for graduate students is not the norm. These people are worth gold, an internship allowance is a pittance on the budget.” Teacher training programs should also pay more attention to this, says Roovers. “Think of explaining the rights and obligations of students, and addressing employers in their region about this.”
The Education magazine also wrote about lio interns in 2019. At that time, according to a small survey, 40 percent of students received no compensation for the final internship. This article led to parliamentary questions to the then education minister Arie Slob. He urged employers' organizations in 2020 to "to pay lios in accordance with the collective agreement and not to use trainees as lios'.
Practice shows that too many employers continue to opt for the cheapest option
If it is up to the AOb the non-commitment of the collective labor agreement will now be removed as soon as possible. For graduation internships, the unions want all school boards in the Netherlands (po, vo and MBO) will be obliged to conclude apprenticeship contracts with their students, with the associated payments. Roovers: “Practice shows that too many employers continue to opt for the cheapest option.”
In the new education collective agreements, the AOb also make arrangements for the compulsory teaching internships up to the final internship. They should receive 750 euros gross per month.
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