The Working Group for Internships continued its work in 2023 in order to implement and complete the process of passing the Law on internships started in 2021. The meeting was attended by about twenty representatives of state administration bodies, the National Employment Service, trade unions and civil society organizations. Members of the working group raised issues that have been discussed before.

Members of the working group emphasized the importance of separating the concepts of professional development and work practice in order to make it clear to employers in the public sector when to conclude a contract on professional development, and when a contract on internships. In connection with this issue, it is also envisaged to include administrative inspection procedures for work practices in the state administration in the Law on internships.

Within the working group, the projected years of age for entry into work practice were discussed. The proposed proposal is that the age limit for entry into internships will be 30 years. The adopted proposal does not coincide with the proposal of the Belgrade Open School, where the recommendation of BOS was that internships, in terms of freedom of choice of profession and change of profession, be enabled for all, and that special attention be paid to young people up to 30 years of age. This is in line with the concept of lifelong learning, and we have written more about this issue in this text.

Other important issues of work experience conditions for the position of mentor, but also the number of interns for which a mentor can be responsible. An important issue also concerned the amount of reimbursement of young people on work practice, but no agreement was reached on the proposed amount. The working group will continue to discuss these and other issues on the Draft Law on internships, which can be found on the agenda.

The legal framework for regulating internships is important in order to prevent abuse and ensure quality, as shown by previous legal analyses and research conducted by BOS, and in order to reach an adequate solution, it is important that a broad consultative process is carried out. The BOS team will continue to report on the work of the working group in order to inform the general interested public about the ongoing consultative processes.