Education Mn.: Report internship discrimination

While the Netherlands is an all-inclusive society, it still sometimes happens that someone is rejected from a job because of their name, race or religion. And this does not only happen with adult jobs, but also with internships. Minister Jet Bussemaker of Education is therefore implementing more measures to more quickly identify and put an end to discrimination when it comes to vocational internships, Metro Nieuws reports.

"Training companies who consciously or unconsciously discriminate based on skin color, religion or descent must be addressed on that and, if that is not enough, held accountable", Bussemaker said. "I therefore call on all students to report any internship discrimination. And I expect schools to always take it seriously."

Companies guilty of discrimination could lose their status as a training company, after which they may offer no further internships. But Bussemaker believes that this alone is not enough. Discrimination is not always immediately obvious, and students don't always know how to recognize it. She therefore launched training on how to recognize discrimination for vocational students and teachers in the five large cities in the country.

The Minister is also making money available for company visits and quick internships as a test to see whether it makes sense for students and companies to get to know each other before official internship placements. Bussemaker is also investigating whether it will be helpful for internship applications to be done anonymously in future.

A study done by Knowledge Platform Integration and Society earlier this year showed that girls wearing headscarves, Moroccan boys and single mothers have a hard time finding internships.