44 percent of trainees receive no compensation. This is evident from a Wednesday research by the Interurban Student Consultation (ISO), performed by ResearchNed. More than a quarter of the 4,886 higher education students surveyed feel that they are used as cheap employees.
Students find the allowances important, ResearchNed writes, because they cannot take a side job during their internship. In health care, reimbursements are the lowest at 331 euros per month. This is highest in education: the amount there is on average 621 euros, but 85 percent receive no compensation.
Most students do an internship during their studies. According to the Labor Inspectorate, learning must be the main goal during that internship – otherwise the intern is an employee, and the minimum wage applies. Compensation is not mandatory for trainees, but ISO wants that to change.
Too many responsibilities
In addition to the fees, students also have complaints about the responsibilities they are given during their internship. There are too many, say 19 percent. ISO chairman Lisanne de Roos says in a statement: “An internship may be quite challenging, but it cannot be the case that as an intern you are saddled with a gigantic laundry list of tasks and responsibilities.”
For almost all HBO students and most WO students who did an internship, this was a compulsory part of their studies. A third of those students were assigned an internship position by the study programme, according to the survey, but more than a quarter still have trouble finding an internship. A student writes in the survey: “I have now been delayed for almost a year because there are very few internships in dietetics.”
Also read: No healthcare staff? Put the intern in