
Work placement contract
A work placement/internship contract is a three-party contract with three signatures on it: from an educational institution, a work placement organisation and a student.
Checklist
A contract between two parties is not an internship contract. If you as a former student have a work placement contract with a work placement institution and there is no educational institution involved you don't have a work placement contract. Often, you'll receive an expense allowance and formally you're a volunteer.
Read the contract carefully and check whether it clearly defines the rights and obligations of all three parties. Note the following points:
- Activities
What will my activities be; are these interesting and/or instructive enough for me? - Guidance
Is there enough guidance offered from the work placement organisation and the educational institution? Who is supervising you? - Review
Who is reviewing, when, how and for how many credits? - Insurances
Is the work placement organisation well insured:
- for damage caused to others by yourself? Your own liability does not cover such damage. The financial amounts can be high.
- for damage caused to me by others
Occasionally the education institution takes these obligations if the work placement organisation is a freelancer. - Dates and hours
Dates of the beginning and end of the internship, holidays, hours, (travel) expenses, obligations during illness, secrecy - Financial compensation
Agreements on expenses and travel expenses - Confidentiality (possibly)
- Special circumstances
Under which special circumstances can I stop? Who can I dicuss this with?
Is a work placement contract an employment contract?
There are differences between a work placement contract and an employment contract. The most important ones are:
- the work placement organisation does not pay a salary. Often you do receive a work placement fee, but this is not required by law unless otherwise specified in the collective labour agreement of the internship organisation.
- the student cannot be fired. However, the contract can be dissolved.
- the student doesn’t build up entitlement to employers insurances such as WW and WIA
However, it sometimes happens that the work placement organisation does pay the student a salary (agreeing on a gross amount, of which a net amount is paid). That means that your work placement contract is also an employment contract.