After a brief discussion on Thursday 15 March, the Employment and Social Affairs Council adopted a recommendation establishing criteria for quality and effectiveness relating to apprenticeships in Europe. For example, the text supports a written agreement as well as remuneration and/or allowances for protecting apprentices from abusive practice (see EUROPE 11877).
The recommendation, presented on 5 October 2017, comes further to criticism in April that year by the Court of Auditors on the youth guarantee (see EUROPE 11761), regarding the lack of clear objectives and timeframes. It sets out 14 quality criteria, divided into two groups, for apprenticeships: the first concerns training and working conditions, and the second relates to general conditions. Pay is among the most important criteria. The recommendation, which is non-binding by definition, indicates that “apprentices should be paid or otherwise compensated, in line with national or sectoral requirements or collective agreements where they exist, and taking into account arrangements on cost-sharing between employers and public authorities”. On the matter of social protection, the recommendation stipulates that “apprentices should be entitled to social protection, including necessary insurance in line with national legislation”.
At the Council, the commissioner for employment, Marianne Thyssen, said: “apprentices exist in almost all member states according to different formula. Some member states have a more work-oriented tradition while others are geared more to education. There is nothing bad in this. It represents European diversity. It is why we have presented a flexible framework which accommodates national realities”. The text introduces a broader definition of apprenticeship, a definition covered by a statement from Latvia joined to the recommendation (in which Riga expresses its preferences for the term “training through work”).
Erasmus Pro
The commissioner also stressed the positive impact that such a quality framework would have on apprenticeship mobility. During her speech, she briefed European ministers on the deployment of the new Erasmus Pro programme which aims to allow one million young Europeans to acquire, by 2020, a professional qualification in another country of the EU. She pointed out that the analysis of the first signs of interest were encouraging. She highlighted the European Commission’s readiness to conduct assessment exercises and to provide a service for supporting apprenticeships as of 8 November this year (date of the 5th anniversary of the apprenticeship alliance). (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)