Traineeships can make a valuable contribution to enabling young people to gain useful experience in the world of work and support a successful career start. However, many young people who complete traineeships are exploited.

The EU Commission has presented a Directive on improving and enforcing working conditions of trainees and combating regular employment relationships disguised as traineeships (“Traineeships Directive”) as well as a draft Council recommendation on a reinforced quality framework for trainees.

AK welcomes the intention to improve working conditions of trainees, has some points of criticism on the proposal, however. In the view of AK, it must be made clear that a traineehip is generally an employment relationship in which relevant labour and social law, including collective agreements, must be applied in full.