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Traineeships and Vocational Integration for Young People (Stage et insertion professionnelle des jeunes) - Belgium
Source: Federal Government of Belgium
The purpose of workplace training of the youth is to support the professional insertion of the young people in the labour market by obliging the companies and the administrations to occupy a certain number of young applicants for work as trainees. These trainees thereby have the possibility to receive, in a real working environment, a hands-on training which facilitate the transition between education and active working, during a period of six months extendable by six months in the private sector and twelve months in the public sector.
Enterprises and non-profit-making organisations with at least 50 employees are obliged to take on a number of trainees corresponding to 3% of their workforce. Enterprises experiencing difficulties can be exempted from this obligation by the Ministry of Employment and Labour. Enterprises that have concluded a collective labour agreement, where 0.15% is set aside for the benefit of risk groups or of persons for whom a support plan exists, can also apply for exemption. In addition, the enterprises also always have the possibility of concluding agreements with the Ministry of Employment and Labour which exempt them completely or partially from the obligation to take on trainees if they create new jobs for young persons who are under the age of 30 and if they employ these persons on open-ended employment contracts.
Administrative bodies with more than 50 employees must employ a number of trainees corresponding to only 2% of their workforce.
Young persons under the age of 30 who are registered as jobseekers and who have been unemployed for more than 6 months are eligible to apply for a traineeship.
In the private sector, trainees can be employed on a full-time or part-time basis. The traineeship lasts 6 months and can be extended only once. In the public sector, trainees are employed on a part-time basis (four-fifths of the regular working time or half-time); their training lasts for a period of 12 months only.
During the traineeship, the trainee receives remuneration amounting to 90% of the income of an employee performing the same task.
A second traineeship can be applied for if, on the date the application is submitted, the applicant is less than 30 years of age, has been fully unemployed for at least 2 years and is receiving unemployment benefit. The second traineeship must be carried out in a different enterprise or administrative organisation to the first.
Employers in the private sector who take on young people after their traineeship has ended and provide them with an open-ended employment contract receive a financial incentive if the recruitments lead to a net increase in the number of personnel employed by the enterprise. The first year, a trainee who has been retained receives remuneration amounting to at least 90% of that of an employee carrying out the same task. Furthermore, with regard to the 3% rule, the trainee is considered a semi-trainee. In the second year, a 10% reduction in the employer's social security contributions is granted for the trainee.
Half of the traineeships are reserved for young persons who have been registered as looking for work for at least 9 months and who have signed a contract on initial vocational experience. This contract provides for a six-month traineeship which can be extended only once. If an employer recruits a young person - who is eligible for waiting allowance - on a half-time basis under a contract on initial vocational experience, he may reduce the trainee's net remuneration by BEF 6,000 per month. The young person can then reclaim the BEF 6,000 from ONEM.
The law of 26 March 1999 relating to the Belgian action plan for employment 1998 strongly reinforced the sanctions for the companies and administrations that do not satisfy their workplace training obligations by placing a daily compensatory payment of 3,000 BFR per nonoccupied trainee or by worker laid off in favour of hiring a trainee.
By 30 June 1999, 1,200 companies or ASBL had lodged a request for exemption on the basis of creation of new jobs for young persons who are under the age of 30 and employing these persons on open-ended employment contracts.
Regarding the requests for exemption on the basis of experiencing difficulties, by 30 June 1999, out of 106 applications, 5 had been refused and 101 approved.
Lastly, regarding the requests for exemption on the basis of conclusion of a collective labour agreement, where 0.15% is set aside for the benefit of risk groups or of persons for whom a support plan exists, 2 sectors had requested and obtained an exemption for 1997-1998. They are the Joint Commission No 124 (construction firms) and No 126 (furniture manufacturing and wood processing).
The program does not generate a cost to the budget of the State. On the contrary, the ONSS. received in 1998 a reduction in the benefits of BEF 194.1 million for the employment of ex-trainees (BEF 40.6 million for the first quarter of 1999).
Within the framework of its new policy in favour of the employment of young people, the government plans to replace the system of workplace training by a system of job guarentee. This new system aims to guarantee an employment to each young person who is no longer subjected to compulsory education, but is of less than 25 years old and has finished studies or ceased profiting from a course of insertion less than six months previously. In the event of shortage of such young people, measure would first be accessible also to other applicants for work of less than 25 years, and less than 30 years after that. All the public and private employers employing a certain number of workers will be required to employ a certain percentage of young people in the famework of this guarantee. To satisfy this obligation, the employers will profit during the first year from reductions in the employer's shares of social security and/or premiums. They will also be able to use all the existing measures of federal, municipal or regional vocational training, insertion, and employment contracts.
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