The daughter of Metin Yavuz from Meppel was refused an internship on the basis of her last name. That’s what her father says. Education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf calls this discrimination ‘unacceptable’.
“Cannot get an internship because of your disability, religion or last name. I read it below and I hear it from students, even yesterday. Internship discrimination is unacceptable. Tomorrow I will speak to the House about banning this phenomenon,” the minister writes in response on Twitter.
The daughter applied under her own name and was rejected because there would be no internship available. She tried again, this time signing by name Lisa Slots. This time there was an internship. Her father says that ‘Lisa’ received a reply from the same contact person and that her letter was almost identical. According to De Stentor, the father is furious and wants something to be done against this kind of discrimination. Pets Place will investigate the course of events.
Combating discrimination at internship companies has been on Dijkgraaf’s agenda for some time. One idea to achieve this is a system of so-called stage matching. In such a system, trainees indicate what their competences are and what they want to learn. Based on that information, a training company can then choose an intern, without being aware of the name or cultural background, the newspaper writes.
Both educational institutions and employers commit to that system in advance. It is expected that discrimination on the basis of surname can be successfully combated in this way.
Spokesperson for Minister Dijkgraaf Jacco Neleman says he wants to give every MBO student a ‘good start’. “The first internship in the first MBO year must be a successful experience,” he says to De Stentor. “It is often the first introduction to the future field of work.”
The system would not be made mandatory. If students want to do it ‘under their own steam’, that is also possible. The minister also wants to ensure that students can report discrimination in a safe and accessible manner at every MBO institution by means of an internship pact.