Union raises alarm over fake care internships giving diplomas without practical training
The General Education Union (AOb) is raising alarm over fraud in mandatory care internships for intermediate vocational education students. The union cites cases of residential groups with no clients and hours signed off on nonexistent placements. Care diplomas are also allegedly being awarded without any actual caregiving experience, AD reports based on its review of an upcoming Onderwijsblad article.
Malicious training companies enable students to complete required care internships without ever attending to a client, the union said. The Education Inspectorate recently described similar scenes in its own report, and the MBO Raad has also flagged the problem. Schools reportedly find it difficult to intervene, allowing students with no practical experience to earn diplomas.
Problems sometimes occur at legitimate care organizations through employee fraud or inadequate supervision of internships. A coordinator of an intermediate vocational education internship office described “sign-off internships” in which students receive hours and positive evaluations for placements that never occurred. Some students pay hundreds of euros for them. The fraud is openly advertised on Facebook, with requests and offers for such arrangements.
One internship supervisor from a training program visited a care residence where a student was supposedly placed. Everything appeared staged. The supervisor saw almost no clients. In a room said to be occupied, personal belongings were missing. No clothing or toothbrush was present; only a chair stood beside the bed, AD reported.
Other red flags encountered by schools include too many interns scheduled on exactly the same days at a questionable site and companies that repeatedly cancel or reschedule appointments.
The Education Inspectorate’s recent report contains comparable cases. One supervisor repeatedly failed to secure an appointment to visit a training company and was eventually asked to meet at a roadside restaurant because it was “more convenient.” In another instance, a supervisor did not loose the appointment but got no farther than the care institution’s restaurant and never saw a client.
Acting on suspected fraud is often difficult. Supervisors who sense something is wrong frequently lack hard evidence sufficient to build a full case. The Samenwerkingsorganisatie Beroepsonderwijs Bedrijfsleven (SBB), which recognizes training companies, lacks adequate authority to act against fraudulent firms and revoke approvals, the inspectorate found. It may intervene only in the most serious misconduct.
“Well-intentioned students are the victims, while ill-intentioned students can too easily abuse the system. This means people really do enter care work without having gained practical experience and stand at patients’ bedsides without knowledge. That is truly an enormous problem,” said Andries Knol from the AOb.
In response to the inspectorate, Education Minister Rianne Letschert said she recognizes the reports of fraud in intermediate vocational education internships and that the certification body SBB should receive greater powers. She also stressed that educational institutions themselves bear responsibility and must improve their internship supervision.
The AOb objects to that stance. Internship supervisors in intermediate vocational education often already lack the capacity and time for site visits, Knol said. It is unfair to place the burden back on schools and expect supervisors to act like detectives.
The union calls for a dashboard allowing schools to share negative experiences with one another. “The ministry could take a bit more initiative there. In addition, before a student is sent to a company, both the teacher and the SBB should already have visited it to check whether everything is above board,” Knol said.
