Proposal for a COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION on a Quality Framework for Traineeships
Date: 2013-12-04
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: fight against unemployment, first job, job mobility, market access, professional experience, student mobility, traineeship, working conditions, youth employment, youth unemployment













EUR-Lex - 52013PC0857 - EN











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52013PC0857

Proposal for a COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION on a Quality Framework for Traineeships /* COM/2013/0857 final - 2013/0431 (NLE) */









EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
1.           CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL
Over the past two
decades, traineeships have become an important entry point into the labour
market for young people. Fostering the employability
and productivity of young people is key to bringing them onto the labour market.
However, although traineeships increasingly represent
a standard feature in our labour markets, their spread has been accompanied by
growing concerns as to learning content and working conditions. If traineeships
are really to facilitate access to employment, they must offer quality learning
content and adequate working conditions, and should not be a cheap substitute
for regular jobs. 
In December 2012, the
Commission presented the Youth Employment Package[1] including the launching of the second stage consultation of social
partners on a Quality Framework for Traineeships[2]
(QFT), following
repeated calls by the European Parliament[3] and the European Council[4]. The Commission's consultations[5] on the matter along with other
studies and surveys, identified a range of problems currently affecting
traineeships in the EU. The issues concern two areas in particular:
·        
insufficient learning content (i.e. trainees are
asked to do menial tasks); and 
·        
inadequate working conditions (long working
hours, unsatisfactory coverage for health and safety or occupational risks,
little or no remuneration/compensation, unclear legal situation, extended
duration, etc.). 
In addition, stakeholders highlighted the
issue that a large proportion of unpaid or low‑paid traineeships may
create an equal access problem[6] and also leads to a tendency to replace paid workers with trainees[7]. Also, trainees are sometimes not told clearly whether they will
receive remuneration or compensation, or informed about key working conditions
such as health and accident insurance or holiday entitlements.
More transparency regarding the learning
content and working conditions of the traineeship will lead to a more efficient
functioning of the labour market. The 2013 Eurobarometer on traineeships
suggests that transparency regarding working conditions in traineeship vacancy
notices and advertisements might be improved.
Member States
regulatory frameworks in general and the strictness of the regulation in
particular varies widely both amongst the different types of traineeships and
across Member States. In some Member States no legal definition of traineeships
exists. While the current fragmentation of regulation
and the absence of quality criteria in general use is remarkable, a common
understanding of what a traineeship is and of its minimum standards can help
shape Member States’ policies and regulatory approaches. Finally, evidence shows that the number
of transnational traineeships is very low[8],
despite very high mobility rates among students, e.g. in the Erasmus programme.
This appears to be an important missed opportunity in terms of reducing youth
unemployment through mobility: transnational traineeships could be a key factor
in helping young people take up employment in another Member State. A Europe-wide QFT would help address the low
number of transnational traineeships. It would help address
one key obstacle for cross border mobility, lack of information, in an area of
great regulatory fragmentation. The
development of a QFT is also essential for the
extension of EURES to traineeships, as requested by the European Council in its
June 2012 conclusions[9].
In response to very high youth unemployment
in several Member States and following up on earlier commitments, the
Commission proposed a Recommendation on Establishing a Youth Guarantee[10], which the Council adopted on 22 April 2013[11]. This calls on Member States to ensure that all young people up
to the age of 25 years receive a good‑quality offer of employment,
continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of
becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. Quality requirements for
traineeships are essential for effective implementation of the Recommendation. 
Against this background, the current
proposal for a Council Recommendation seeks to ensure that traineeships
efficiently ease education‑to‑work transitions and thus increase
young people’s employability. The proposal sets out guidelines that can ensure
high‑quality learning content and adequate working conditions. It also
outlines how the Commission will support Member States’ action through the EU
funding framework, the exchange of good practices, and monitoring. It covers
so-called ‘open-market’ traineeships, i.e. traineeships agreed between trainee
and a traineeship provider (business, non-profit or government) without the
involvement of a third party, generally conducted after completion of studies
and/or as part of a job search. The proposed Recommendation does not address
traineeships forming part of academic and or vocational curricula, neither the
one which form part of mandatory professional training (e. g. medicine,
architecture etc). 
The proposal is accompanied by an impact
assessment which presents the outcomes of stakeholder consultations, looks in
more detail at the problems regarding traineeships, discusses legal and
subsidiarity issues, and provides an analysis of possible options to respond to
the problem.
2.           RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS
WITH THE INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
Public consultation 
The Commission consulted a wide range of
stakeholders on the problems regarding traineeships and on possible solutions. 
In response to a public consultation
between April and July 2012, trade unions, NGOs, youth organisations,
educational institutions and most individual respondents generally supported a
Commission initiative. While generally supportive of the initiative, employer
organisations, chambers of commerce and Member States often referred to the
need to keep the framework sufficiently flexible to take into account the
diversity of national practices. 
Most respondents agreed with the Commission’s
analysis (a written traineeship agreement, clear objectives and learning
content[12],
limited duration, adequate social security coverage etc.). Businesses and some
employers’ organisations argued that remuneration and social protection issues did
not fall under EU competence.
Consultation with social partners
A two‑stage social partner
consultation on the QFT initiative took place between October 2012 and February
2013. The social partners restated the positions they had taken in the public
consultation, with the trade union side arguing for a stronger initiative and
the employers’ side concerned about flexibility and the burden on business. However,
they did not launch negotiations on a possible agreement under Article 154
TFEU. 
On 11 June 2013, ETUC, BUSINESSEUROPE,
UEAPME and CEEP presented a Framework of Actions on Youth Employment (FoA),
resulting from social dialogue negotiations taking note of the Commission’s
intention to propose a Council Recommendation on the European Quality Framework
on Traineeships. Social partners envisage taking further joint actions towards
the Council and the European Parliament based on an upcoming Commission proposal
for a Council Recommendation on a European QFT.
Small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs)
Between March and June 2013, an SME test
was conducted to investigate from an employer perspective the quality of
traineeships provided by SMEs and gauge the compliance costs of potential
measures within a QFT. In total, 914 SMEs replied to the survey. The test
highlighted the importance of traineeships for creating jobs in SMEs, with a
majority of those questioned (71.9 %) seeing traineeships as a way to
select and train future employees. It also confirmed that an overwhelming
majority of SMEs (9 out of 10) would have no problems with the proposed quality
elements.
Eurobarometer survey on traineeships
In May 2013, a Eurobarometer survey was
conducted in the EU-27 and Croatia to quantify concerns about the quality of
traineeships. The results of this first ever EU-wide representative survey on
the topic included:
·        
confirmation of how widespread traineeships are:
46 % of the 18‑35 year‑olds surveyed had completed at least
one;
·        
one in three traineeships was deemed
unsatisfactory, in terms either of working conditions (25 % of all
traineeships), learning content (18 %) or both;
·        
a key factor in the rarity of transnational
traineeships (9 %of all traineeships) is lack of information: 38 % of
those who would have been interested cited insufficient information on
traineeship regulations in other Member States.
An econometric analysis based on the
Eurobarometer results found a significant correlation between the quality of
traineeships and ‘employment outcome’. In other words, those that had completed
a substandard traineeship were significantly less likely to find a job
afterwards.
Impact assessment
The second stage of the social partner
consultation was accompanied by an analytical document[13] on the problems regarding the quality of traineeships, which sets
out possible policy responses. 
This document was expanded in 2013 to form a
fully-fledged impact assessment (IA)[14] with previously unavailable data on the number
and quality of traineeships, and new evidence of the correlation between quality
and employment prospects. The
IA identifies and analyses policy options for increasing the share of quality
traineeships, notably by issuing ‘best practice’ standards and discouraging employers
from offering substandard traineeships. It also analyses new proposals on
transparency to make it easier for young people to screen traineeships for
quality.
The IA examines four
options in addition to the baseline scenario: 
·        
setting up an information website;
·        
establishing voluntary quality labels;
·        
proposing a Council Recommendation; and
·        
proposing a Directive. 
It concludes that the
most effective, efficient and proportionate option would be a Commission
proposal for a Council Recommendation on a QFT to be transposed by Member
States in national practice and/or the national legal system. 
It would recommend
Member States to ensure that the conclusion of a written traineeship agreement is made compulsory. The
agreement would include information on the learning objectives of the
traineeship, the working conditions, whether remuneration/compensation is
provided, the rights and obligations under applicable EU and national law, as
well as the duration of the traineeship.
Also, additional transparency requirements would
generate incentives for quality traineeships and/or disincentives for
substandard traineeships. 
According to the preferred option,
traineeship vacancy notices would have to indicate whether the traineeship is
paid or not and, if the traineeship is paid, the level of
remuneration/compensation. Furthermore, traineeship providers would be asked to
disclose the share of trainees that were offered an employment contract
after the end of their traineeship.
3.           LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE
PROPOSAL
Legal basis
The legal bases for this initiative are
Articles 153, 166 and 292 TFEU. According to Article 292 TFEU, the Council can
adopt recommendations on the basis of a Commission proposal in the areas of EU
competence. 
According to Article 153 TFEU, the Union
shall support and complement Member States' activities in the field of, inter
alia, working conditions, social security and social protection of workers, and
also the integration of persons excluded from the labour market and the
combating of social exclusion. In accordance with the case law of the Court of
Justice, traineeships which are remunerated fall under Article 153.
In order to cover also
traineeships which are not remunerated, Article 166 TFEU has been added as
additional legal basis. According to this provision, the Union shall implement
a vocational training policy which shall support and supplement the action of
the Member States, while fully respecting the responsibility of the Member
States for the content and organisation of vocational training. 
Therefore, depending on
whether the traineeship is remunerated or not, Article 153 or 166 TFEU will
apply respectively.
The provisions of Article 153 TFEU do not
apply to pay, by virtue of Article 153 para. 5 TFEU. However, the latter
provision does not stand in the way of addressing problems regarding
transparency of pay, by recommending that the written traineeship agreement
clarifies whether or not remuneration would be applicable.
An analogy may be made with other EU
instruments such as Directive 91/533/EEC, on an employer's obligation to inform
an employee of the conditions applicable to the contract or employment
relationship. That Directive provides at Article 2 that: 
'1. An employer shall be obliged to
notify an employee … of the essential aspects of the contract or employment
relationship.
2. The information referred to …. shall
cover at least the following:
(h) the initial basic amount, the other
component elements and the frequency of payment of the remuneration to which
the employee is entitled …'[15]
Similarly, the Proposal for a Directive on
conditions of entry and residence of third country nationals in the framework
of an intra-corporate transfer[16] addresses the issue of remuneration as an element of an assignment
letter from the employer, or of a contract.
Training forms a
central objective in the EU's employment and educational policies. It is also
an integral part of the freedom of movement of persons under Article 45 TFEU –
a fundamental freedom protected by the Treaty. Given the transnational
dimension of traineeships, actions of individual Member States alone will not
achieve the objectives of the proposed initiative - to comprehensively improve
the quality of traineeships undertaken in the EU.
Finally, the Charter of
Fundamental Rights of the European Union also contains a number of rights and
freedoms which may be relevant to future measures concerning traineeships, in
particular Article 21 (Non-discrimination), Article 29 (Right of access to
placement services), Article 31 (Fair and just working conditions) and Article
32 (Prohibition of child labour and protection of young people at work).
Subsidiarity
The subsidiarity principle applies insofar as the proposal does not
fall under the exclusive competence of the Union. 
In the case of traineeships,
an EU-wide solution presents several advantages: 
(1)                   
The quality guidelines adopted or proposed by
different bodies in different Member States broadly point to similar elements
that are supposed to be key for enhancing the quality of traineeships. This
suggests that defining quality standards for traineeships should not
fundamentally differ according to national practices or local circumstances.
(2)                   
An EU-wide solution would have benefits in terms
of trainees’ mobility. Young people would find it easier to accept a
traineeship in another country if the existence of standard practices or rules
gave them a clear understanding of what they can expect. 
(3)                   
Experience shows that, owing to coordination
problems, the process of defining internationally accepted quality standards
can be faster if supranational institutions adopt a coordinating and supporting
role. 
Member States could independently adopt
measures to improve the quality of traineeships. I in practice, however, they
have repeatedly called upon the Commission to adopt a QFT (see among others the Conclusions of three
recent European Councils: December 2012, February 2013 and June 2013). 
In a situation of diverging regulatory
frameworks it helps to have a common understanding of what a traineeship is and
of its minimum standards. This will help shape Member States’ regulatory
approaches, since the proposed standards are to be operationalized through the
specific regulatory approach of Member States. In this way, the EU could concretely support Member States in
implementing the Europe 2020 employment guideline 8, in particular ‘enacting
schemes to help young people and in particular those not in employment,
education or training find initial employment, job experience, or further
education and training opportunities, including apprenticeships, and should
intervene rapidly when young people become unemployed.’ This would
address one key obstacle for cross border mobility, lack of information, in an
area of great regulatory fragmentation, and the Recommendation would help to
underpin the support provided by Erasmus+[17]
and further development of EURES[18].
Proportionality
The Council
Recommendation instrument allows strict respect of the proportionality
principle: Member States that have already introduced in their legislation or
national practice the proposed safeguards and quality elements will not need to
act. Member States shall also be free to assess whether it is opportune to go
beyond the QFT proposed here, notably to encompass also the issue of minimum
remuneration, which the QFT does not touch.
4.           BUDGETARY IMPLICATION
Not relevant.
5.           OPTIONAL ELEMENTS
Not relevant.
2013/0431 (NLE)
Proposal for a
COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION
on a Quality Framework for Traineeships
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Articles 153, 166 and 292
thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the
European Commission,
Whereas:
(1)       Young people have been hit
particularly hard during the crisis. Youth unemployment rates have reached
historical peaks in the past years in several Member States, without any sign
of decrease in the short term. Fostering the employability and productivity of
young people is key to bringing them onto the labour market.
(2)       A smooth transition from
education to employment is crucial to enhance the chances of young people on
the labour market. Improving young people's education and facilitating their
transition to employment are necessary to reach the Europe 2020 headline target
of 75% of 20-64 year-olds in employment by 2020. Guideline 8 on employment
policies of the Member States calls on Member States to enact "schemes
to help young people and in particular those not in employment, education or
training find initial employment, job experience, or further education and
training opportunities, including apprenticeships, and should intervene rapidly
when young people become unemployed"[19].
(3)       Over the past two decades,
traineeships have become an important entry point into the labour market for
young people.
(4)       Socio-economic costs arise
if traineeships, particularly the repeated ones, replace regular employment,
notably entry-level positions usually offered to young people. Moreover, low-quality
traineeships, especially those with little learning content, do not lead to
significant productivity gains nor entail positive signalling effects. Social
costs also relate to unpaid traineeships that may limit the career
opportunities of those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
(5)       There is evidence that links
exist between the quality of the traineeship and the employment outcome. The
value of traineeships in easing the transition to employment depends on their
quality in terms of learning content and working conditions. Quality
traineeships bring direct productivity benefits, improve labour market matching
and promote mobility, notably by decreasing search and matching costs both for
enterprises and for young people.
(6)       The Council Recommendation
on establishing a Youth Guarantee[20]
requests that Member States ensure that all young people up to the age of 25
years receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an
apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or
leaving formal education. 
(7)       Various studies and
surveys have found that quality problems affect a significant share of
traineeships, most particularly those where no educational or training institution
is directly responsible for the learning content and the working conditions of
the traineeship (so called 'open market’ traineeships). 
(8)       Evidence shows that a
significant share of trainees is asked to do menial tasks without sufficient
learning content. A quality traineeship has to provide a solid and meaningful learning
content, notably by the identification of the specific skills to be acquired,
supervision and mentoring of the trainee as well as monitoring of his/her
progress. 
(9)       Problems have also been
identified as regards working conditions, e.g. long working hours, social
security coverage, health and safety or occupational risks, little or no remuneration
and/or compensation, a lack of clarity on the applicable legal regimes, and the
prolonged duration of the traineeship.
(10)     Traineeships are currently
regulated in very diverse ways across the Union. Where regulation exists, it
provides different quality elements or different implementing practices, while traineeships
remain largely unregulated in some Member States and sectors. A considerable
share of traineeship providers use trainees as cheap or even unpaid labour,
which is often caused by the absence of a regulatory framework or instrument,
or by a lack of transparency regarding working conditions for traineeships and
their learning content. 
(11)     A Quality Framework for
Traineeships will support the improvement of working conditions and the
learning content of traineeships. The conclusion of a written traineeship
agreement that indicates the educational objectives, adequate working
conditions, rights and obligations and a reasonable duration constitutes the
main element of the Quality Framework for Traineeships.
(12)     Lack of information is one
of the causes of low quality traineeships and is a much more widespread problem
regarding traineeships than regular employment. Increased transparency requirements
for notices or announcements advertising traineeship positions would help to
improve working conditions and stimulate cross-border mobility.
(13)     Social partners play a key
role in the design, implementation and monitoring of training policies and
programmes. Cooperation between social partners and relevant authorities could
aim at providing young people with targeted information on available career
opportunities and skills needs on labour markets, as well as on trainees'
rights and responsibilities. In addition, social partners can play a role in
facilitating the implementation of the Quality Framework for Traineeships,
notably by elaborating and making available simple and concise model traineeship
agreements, particularly for use by micro enterprises and tailored for their
specific purposes. In their Framework of Actions on Youth Employment of July
2013, the European social partners took note of the Commission’s intention to
propose a Council Recommendation on the European quality framework on
traineeships and announced to support Member States’ actions aiming to improve
the quality of traineeships.
(14)     One of the challenges is to
increase the cross-border mobility of trainees in the Union to help foster a
genuine European labour market. The existing diversity in regulations
constitutes an obstacle to the development of cross-border trainee mobility. Moreover,
in some cases, administrative and legal obstacles to cross-border mobility of
trainees have been found to affect several of the receiving Member States. By
providing standards and guidelines that should be used as a reference, the
Quality Framework for Traineeships will facilitate access to transnational
traineeships.
(15)     The development of a
Quality Framework for Traineeships will increase transparency. Furthermore, it
will support the extension of EURES to traineeships, thus facilitating mobility,
and help to underpin the support for trainee mobility provided by Erasmus+.
(16)     Member States' programmes
promoting and offering traineeships to young people can be financially
supported by the European Funds. In addition, the Youth Employment Initiative
will support traineeships in the context of the Youth Guarantee, targeting
young people from the Union's regions worst affected by youth unemployment and
which will be co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) 2014-20. The ESF as
well as the Youth Employment Initiative can be used to increase the number and
the quality of Member States' traineeship schemes. This involves a possible
contribution to the cost of the traineeships including, under certain
conditions, a part of the remuneration. In addition,
they can also support the costs of other trainings that young people may pursue
outside their traineeship, e.g. language courses.
(17)     The Commission has launched
a specific ESF Technical Assistance Support Programme to help Member States
establish traineeship schemes with ESF support. This ESF Technical Assistance
Support Programme provides strategic, operational and policy advice to national
and regional authorities considering the establishment of new traineeship
schemes, or the modernization of existing schemes. 
(18)       The Council, in its Resolution on the Structured Dialogue on Youth
Employment of May 2011 stated that "a quality framework for internships is
desirable in order to guarantee the educational value of such experience".
(19)     The June 2011 Council
conclusions on "Promoting youth employment to achieve the Europe 2020
objectives" invited the Commission to "provide guidance on conditions
for high quality traineeships by means of a quality framework for
traineeships"[21].
(20)     In June 2012 in its
"Resolution towards a Job rich recovery"[22] the European
Parliament invited the Commission to present as soon as possible a
"proposal for a Council Recommendation on a Quality Framework for
Traineeships", and to define "minimum standards supporting the
provision and take-up of high-quality traineeships".
(21)     The June 2012 European
Council invited the Commission to examine the possibility of extending the
EURES portal to traineeships.[23]
(22)     The European Council conclusions
of December 2012 invited the Commission "to rapidly finalise the
quality framework for traineeships".
(23)     In
the Youth Employment Package of December 2012 the Commission launched a social
partner consultation on a Quality Framework for Traineeships. In their replies,
EU social partners informed the Commission that they did not intend to launch
negotiations towards an autonomous agreement under
Article 154 TFEU[24]. 
(24)     The
June 2013 European Council reconfirmed that 'The Quality Framework for
Traineeships should be put into place in early 2014'.
(25)     The Quality Framework is an
important reference point for determining a good quality offer of traineeships
under the Council Recommendation on Establishing a Youth Guarantee.
(26)     According to the Annual
Growth Survey 2014[25]
it is "essential to facilitate the transition from school to work, notably
by increasing the availability of good quality traineeships or
apprenticeships."
(27)     For the purposes of this
Recommendation, traineeships are understood as a limited period of work
practice, agreed between a trainee and a traineeship
provider without the involvement of a third party,
which includes a learning component, in order to gain practical experience
ahead of taking up regular employment (‘open-market’ traineeships). 
(28)     This Recommendation should
cover all ‘open-market’ traineeships,
whether remunerated or not.
(29)     This Recommendation does
not cover work experience placements that are part of
academic curricula, of formal education or vocational course.
Traineeships the content of which is regulated under national law and whose
completion is a requirement to obtain a university degree or to access a
specific profession (e.g. medicine, architecture, etc) are not covered by this
Recommendation.
HEREBY RECOMMENDS THAT MEMBER
STATES:
(1)                   
Improve the quality of open-market traineeships,
in particular as regards learning content and working conditions, with the aim
of easing the transition of young persons from education to work by adopting
within their legislation or national practice the following principles for a
Quality Framework for Traineeships: 

Conclusion of a written traineeship
agreement
(2)                   
Require that traineeships are based on a written
agreement concluded in advance of the traineeship between the trainee and the traineeship
provider; 
(3)                   
Ensure that traineeship agreements indicate the
educational objectives, the working conditions, whether remuneration or
compensation is provided to the trainee by the traineeship provider, the rights
and obligations of the parties under applicable EU and national law, as well as
the duration of the traineeship, as referred to in recommendations 4-12;

Learning objectives
(4)                   
Promote best practices as regards learning objectives
in order to help young people acquire practical experience and relevant skills;
the tasks assigned to the trainee should enable these objectives to be
attained;
(5)                   
Encourage traineeship providers to designate a
supervisor for trainees guiding the trainee through the assigned tasks, and
monitoring his/her progress;

Working conditions
(6)                   
Ensure that the rights of trainees under
applicable EU and national law, as well as their working conditions, including
applicable limits to maximum weekly working time, minimum daily and weekly rest
periods and minimum holiday entitlements are respected;
(7)                   
Require traineeship providers to clarify
coverage in terms of health and accident insurance as well as sick leave;
(8)                   
Ensure that the traineeship agreement clarifies
whether remuneration and/or compensation are applicable, and if applicable, the
rate of remuneration and/or compensation;

Rights and obligations
(9)                   
Ensure that the traineeship agreement lays down
rights and obligations of the trainee and the traineeship provider, including
where relevant the traineeship provider's policies on confidentiality and the
ownership of intellectual property rights;
 
Reasonable duration 
(10)               
Ensure a reasonable duration  of traineeships
that as a rule does not exceed six months, except in cases where a longer
duration is justified, for example in-house training programmes for recruitment
or traineeships undertaken in another Member State;
(11)               
Clarify the circumstances and conditions under
which a traineeship may be extended or renewed after the initial traineeship
agreement expired;
(12)               
Encourage the practice of specifying in the
traineeship agreement that either the trainee or the traineeship provider may
terminate it with two weeks' written notice;

Proper recognition of traineeships
(13)               
Encourage traineeship providers to certify
through a certificate or a letter of reference the knowledge, skills and
competences acquired during traineeships;

Transparency requirements
(14)               
Ensure that traineeship providers include in
their vacancy notices and advertisements information on the terms and
conditions of the traineeship, in particular on whether remuneration and/or
compensation and social protection are applicable, and that the employment
services apply transparency requirements and appropriate career guidance;

Social partners
(15)               
Promote the active involvement of social
partners in implementing the Quality Framework for Traineeships; 
Cross-border traineeships
(16)               
Facilitate the cross-border mobility of trainees
in the European Union inter alia, by clarifying the national legal
framework for open-market traineeships and establishing clear rules on hosting
trainees from, and the sending of trainees to, other Member States and by
reducing administrative formalities;
(17)               
Promote the use of the extended EURES network
and the exchange of information on traineeships through the EURES portal and
encourage employment services to upload traineeship vacancies on the EURES
portal;

Use of European Structural and Investment Funds
(18)               
Make use of the European Structural and Investment
Funds, namely the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development
Fund, in the next programming period 2014-20, and the Youth Employment
Initiative, where applicable, for increasing the number and quality of
traineeships, including through effective partnerships with all relevant
stakeholders;

Implementation of the Quality Framework for Traineeships
(19)               
Implement the Quality Framework for Traineeships
as soon as possible, and no later than the end of 2014; 
(20)               
Identify the public authority in charge of this
implementation and communicate to the Commission how the Quality Framework for
Traineeships is implemented;
(21)               
Promote the active involvement of employment
services, educational institutions and training providers in implementing the
Quality Framework for Traineeships.

NOTES THAT THE COMMISSION INTENDS TO:          

(22)               
Foster close cooperation with Member States,
social partners and other stakeholders with a view to the swift implementation
of this Recommendation;
(23)               
Monitor the implementation of the Quality Framework
for Traineeships pursuant to this Recommendation and analyse the impact of the
policies in place;
(24)               
Report on progress in implementing this
Recommendation on the basis of information
provided by Member States;
(25)               
Work with Member States, social partners,
employment services, and youth and trainee organisations to promote this
Recommendation;
(26)               
Encourage and support Member States, including
through promoting the exchange of best practices among them, to make use of the
European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund or other
European Funds for the 2014-2020 programming period to increase the number and
quality of traineeships;
(27)               
Continue its efforts to increase the offer of
transnational traineeships under the Erasmus+ programme;
(28)               
Work, together with the Member States, towards
the inclusion of traineeships in EURES and set up a dedicated webpage on
national legal frameworks for traineeships.
Done at Brussels,
                                                                       For
the Council
                                                                       The
President
[1]               COM(2012) 727 final, 5.12.2012.
[2]               COM(2012) 728 final, 5.12.2012.
[3]               EP 2009/2221(INI), 6.7.2010 and Resolution 2012/2647(RSP).
[4]               European Council Conclusions of December 2012,
February 2013 and June 2013.
[5]               SWD(2012) 407 final, 5.12.2012.
[6]               According to the UK Low Pay Commission in its report
on National Minimum Wage (2011), traineeships are de facto becoming a
precondition for more and more jobs. 
[7]               The UK Low Pay Commission refers in its 2013 report
to ‘widespread non-payment of the minimum wage for positions that appear to be
work’. 
[8]               The 2013 Eurobarometer survey found that only 9 %
of traineeships took place abroad.
[9]               www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/131388.pdf
[10]             COM(2012) 729 final, 5.12.2012.
[11]             Council Recommendation on Establishing a Youth
Guarantee, 2013/C 120/01, 22.4.2013.
[12]             Among other things, learning content may cover
induction training, a clear explanation/description of the work of the
organisation and the underlying issues within the sector, and assigning a
mentor to follow the work of the trainee and provide guidance.
[13]             SWD(2012) 407 final, 5.12.2012.
[14]             SWD(2013) 495 final, 4.12.2013
[15]             Article 3 of the same Directive requires that that
information shall be provided to the employee in writing, not later than 2
months after the commencement of employment.
[16]             COM(2010) 378 final, 13.7.2010.
[17]             From 1 January 2014, Erasmus+ will
become the new EU funding programme for education, training, youth and sport.
Erasmus+ will have a new, streamlined structure that combines current funding
programmes in the sector including the Lifelong Learning Programme (Comenius,
Leonardo, Erasmus, Grundtvig and Transversal Programmes), Youth in Action, Jean
Monnet, Tempus and Erasmus Mundus.
[18]             EURES is a cooperation network between the European
Commission and the Public Employment Services of the Member States. The EURES
portal provides workers, employers and soon trainees and traineeship providers
with information on jobs, traineeships and learning opportunities throughout Europe.
[19]             Council Decision on Guidelines for the Employment
policies of the Member States, 2010/707/EU, 21.10.2010.
[20]             Council Recommendation on Establishing a Youth
Guarantee, 2013/C 120/01, 22.04.2013.
[21]             Council Conclusions 11838/11 ‘Promoting Youth
Employment to achieve the Europe 2020 objectives’ of 17.06.2011.
[22]             Resolution 2012/2647(RSP).
[23]             EUCO 76/12 of 28/29 June 2012.
[24]             COM(2012) 727 final, 11.12.2012.
[25]             COM(2013) 800 final, 13.11.2013.