The corona crisis is leading to a shortage of internship placements. For instance, over 400 students are looking for internships or apprenticeships for technical training in the metal or metalektro. FME, partner branches, SBB and companies in the technology industry are joining forces to increase the number of available internship placements. They are calling on other organisations to also offer internships or apprenticeships.
Several parties have been sounding the alarm for some time about the available number of traineeships for MBO students in the Netherlands. At the end of February, the ROC van Twente urged employers to offer as many traineeships as possible. If new places do not become available soon, it is estimated that around 1,000 ROC students will not be able to do an internship. As a result, they will suffer a six-month to one-year study delay.
The SBB has also been concerned for some time about the amount of internship placements. Especially in and around Amsterdam, there are far too few internship placements. In August, for instance, the organisation pointed to a shortage of almost 21,000 internship placements in the Netherlands. This concerns all sectors in the Netherlands, not just technology-related sectors.
Creative solutions needed
Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven of Education, Culture and Science and chairman Jacco Vonhof of MKB-Nederland still called on organisations in September to ensure sufficient internship and apprenticeship places with creative solutions.
Minister Van Engelshoven said at this, "Gaining practical experience is crucial for MBO students, but finding an internship is becoming increasingly difficult. This worries me a lot. Especially in sectors where we need people so badly, you won't get there without an internship. That is why we appeal to all recognised training companies: if you have the opportunity, think about the future and invest in tomorrow's professionals. That is in the interest of all of us."
Smart Industry, human technology, aerospace and technician engineering
FME points out that some 20,0000 students study in the metal and metalektro every year. However, the corona crisis is leading to shortages. These occur particularly for BOL placements at level 4 in the field of:
- Smart Industry: robotics, embedded software and big data
- Human technology: product development or improvement with technical knowledge and customer and market research
- Aviation industry: mechanics, avionics and maintenance
- Technician engineering: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, installation engineering.
In order to take on an intern, an organisation must be an accredited training provider. SBB helps organisations to obtain this accreditation and to supervise BBL and BOL students. Further information is available here.
Incidentally, the problems are not limited to the MBO. The Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences already warned in October about a shortage of internship placements for HBO courses. This threatens to cause considerable study delays for HBO courses in Engineering in particular. In cooperation with knowledge centre RDM, the university organised an online internship market in which 2,500 students had a speed date with potential internship companies.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
