Quality internships promoted at the European Youth Event

During the three days of the European Youth Event, one of the Youth Forum’s stands in the YO!Village was particularly popular and seemed to capture the imagination of participants: on quality internships. Thousands of young people dropped by this stand to find out what the European Youth Forum is doing to fight poor quality internships.

Young people shared with us their stories, hopes and views on internships. From the most ridiculous and useless, to the most rewarding and beneficial, the stories shared showed us once again the impact that internships can have on young people today.

Many of those that visited the stand underlined the fact that unpaid internships are a real obstacle to accessing the labour market for young people that cannot afford to work for free, even if they can sometimes provide positive experiences. There should not be such financial barriers preventing young people from accessing quality internships that can lead to quality jobs.

The European Youth Forum has been calling for quality internships for some time through the European Quality Charter for Internships and Apprenticeships. The recent weak Council Recommendation on internships showed that Europe still has a lot of work to do to give internships and apprenticeships a real educational dimension, together with fair treatment for young people that undertake them.

The European Youth Event was a great opportunity to hear and learn from interns’ stories from all over Europe. A film with their experiences was produced during the event and will be used to help lobby the new European Parliament and to call on the newly-elected MEPs to improve the situation in Europe for interns.

Read more: European Quality Charter on Internships and Apprenticeships