Young People Demand a Transparent Job Market! New Campaign Launches on International Interns Day

Press contact: Hannah Grieve, European Youth Forum, e: / tel: +32 2 793 75 36 hannah.grieve@youthforum.org

Starting from 9th November, the day before International Interns Day, all young people will be able to rate their first working experiences on Transparency at Work - a ‘TripAdvisor’ for quality jobs.

More than ever, young people have to overcome an increasingly long and hard journey to enter the labour market. It is estimated that 3 out of 4 interns in Europe receive insufficient or no compensation for their internship, 40% work without a contract and 30% of internships have no learning content.

Therefore, young people, Universities and NGOs have joined forces to take action against this exploitation by launching ‘Transparency at Work’, a campaign created to end unfair working conditions for young people. By 2020, partners of the campaign, including the European Youth Forum, aim to empower 1 million young people to access better work, internationally and across all industries.

By allowing young people to rate their work experience on transparencyatwork.org and on every partner website, Transparency at Work will create the largest participatory database providing much needed information on the quality of young people’s internships, apprenticeships and entry-level jobs. Employers are also encouraged and enabled to improve their practices as well as give recognition to those already providing good quality internships. Every employer is invited to participate for free with Transparency at Work technology co-financed by the European Commission Erasmus+ programme.

On the occasion of International Interns Day on 10th November, the European Youth Forum, InternsGoPro and other organisations fighting to advocate for the rights of interns call on EU and national governments to put an end to this endless vicious cycle of unpaid, poor quality internships, and listen to what young people have to say.

Young people deserve more than being treated as cheap labour force! Time for more Transparency at Work.

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About International Interns Day

International Interns Day aims to empower the interns’ community and achieve concrete political change. This year, International Interns Day is taking place in five countries, and five cities: Geneva, Brussels, Paris, Madrid, and Budapest. For more information on the programme and on events around the world, see: www.internsday.org and follow #WeRate

About the European Youth Forum

The European Youth Forum is the platform of youth organisations in Europe. Independent, democratic, youth-led, it represents over 100 National Youth Councils and international youth organisations from across the continent. The Forum works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives, by representing and advocating their needs and interests and those of their organisations towards the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations.

The European Youth Forum adopted a European Quality Charter on Internships and Apprenticeships, which lays out the principles for good quality internships schemes and an Employers’ Guide for Quality Internships.

About InternsGoPro

InternsGoPro is a social enterprise with the mission to ensure equal employment opportunities for young people and a better transition from education to work in Europe. InternsGoPro developed the “European Label for Quality Internships” to certify employers offering high quality internships. It has the objective to be the leading recognised certification scheme for ‘Quality Internship programmes’ worldwide, offering an online platform for managing a classification of internship programmes.

InternsGoPro’s vision is to increase the transparency on the labour market for students and graduates and help them find internships that truly lead to a job.