Education - CDU calls for a bonus for internships during school vacations
Students in Lower Saxony should receive a premium for internships during school holidays, according to the CDU. "Voluntary internships outside of the prescribed school internships should be rewarded in our opinion, creating an incentive for students to comprehensively inform themselves about professional prospects beyond their studies," said CDU state legislator Christian Frölich.
At the same time, a premium could also cover expenses during the internship, such as travel costs and meal money. "This would particularly open up opportunities for children and young people from financially weaker households," said Frölich. The premium should first be introduced for technical and craft professions. "Perspectively, this premium should then also be transferred to social professions," he added.
Modeled after Saxony-Anhalt: 120 Euro per internship week
Last year, the CDU filed a motion in the parliament to introduce an internship premium modeled after Saxony-Anhalt. In Saxony-Anhalt, student interns over the age of 15 in the craft sector receive a weekly stipend of 120 Euro. A minimum duration of one week and a maximum of four weeks apply. In Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Thuringia, there is also an internship premium.
To join this list, Frölich urged the SPD and Greens coalition governments to approve the CDU motion and allocate the money for the premium in the budget for the next year. However, Rot-Grün has reportedly shown "apparently no interest in addressing the skilled labor shortage in training professions," he criticized.
SPD chief Grant Hendrik Tonne countered that every business could pay an internship premium today. However, many businesses lack apprentices, not interns. "We should therefore focus on strengthening the apprenticeship system and working towards the equivalence of education and training," said Tonne.
The Greens advocate for pilot projects
Green legislator Heiko Sachtleben also expressed reservations. "Introducing a premium for internships on a large scale will likely be financially unrealistic, especially if the success has not yet been evaluated," he said. To counteract the skilled labor shortage, it is indeed important that young people can professionally orient themselves. However, the experiences in the countries with the premium do not indicate whether the interns will also start an apprenticeship or a job in that field. Sachtleben therefore called for discussing pilot projects to investigate "whether an internship premium is the right approach."
The AfD considers an internship premium a "commendable idea," but doubts whether it can really bring about a noticeable trend on the labor market. "For this, the framework conditions for training businesses would have to be improved – the buzzword being bureaucracy reduction," said AfD legislator Harm Rykena.
- The CDU in Lower Saxony proposes a premium for internships during school vacations, similar to the model in Saxony-Anhalt.
- In Saxony-Anhalt, student interns in the craft sector receive a weekly stipend of 120 Euro, with a minimum duration of one week and a maximum of four weeks.
- The SPD has been criticized for showing no interest in addressing the skilled labor shortage in training professions by the CDU, despite the potential benefits of an internship premium.
- SPD chief Grant Hendrik Tonne suggested that businesses could already pay an internship premium and that the focus should be on strengthening the apprenticeship system.
- The Greens advocate for pilot projects to evaluate the effectiveness of an internship premium before implementing it on a large scale.
- The AfD considers the idea of an internship premium commendable but believes that improving the framework conditions for training businesses is necessary to create a noticeable trend in the labor market.
- If approved by the SPD and Greens coalition governments and allocated in the budget for the next year, this premium could help address the skills shortage in Lower Saxony, particularly for technical and craft professions.
