The days of traineeships as a relaxed way of preparing for the real work are over. Nowadays people are no longer given time to look around, but are thrown straight in at the deep end. Trainees are compelled to immediately choose a job in the company. Hard luck for the people who have not really made up their minds yet, but a great improvement for those who know what they want.
Shorter employment contracts
The traditional traineeship based on a long-term employment contract is outdated. Very few young people aged 24 choose to work for a company with the idea of staying there until they retire at 65. In the meantime, however, the companies have been pumping a lot of money into expensive trainee programmes, convinced that they were investing in their future management. Only to see their talents leaving at the end of the programme because they had seen enough and were ready for ‘something else'.
Greater focus on specialisation
Many popular organisations such as ABN Amro, Ahold and Schiphol have been tinkering with their trainee programmes over the past years. They still hope to attract talented university and college graduates. But it has to be cost-effective and more closely geared to the individual qualities and needs of trainees. Both the business sector and the government have therefore replaced the long-term, broadly oriented traineeships with shorter, more specialist training programmes. Which focus not just on management functions but also on specialist functions.
For example, in addition to the management traineeship, Ahold also has a specialist financial traineeship. Just as Heineken now has a technical traineeship, for which only people with a technical degree are eligible. ABN Amro has a variety of traineeships. The trainee is trained to ultimately become a general manager, but then on the basis of a specialisation. One of the Traineeships has been shortened from nine to four months, while the three long work placements have become concrete assignments.
Hopping crown prince now has to go onto the work floor
"The traineeship as an extended study or deferment of choice is really over," says senior manager Oscar de Lint of Ebbinge & Company consultants. De Lint and his team develop trainee programmes at a number of large companies in the Netherlands: "One or two traditional organisations are still offering a programme where the trainee can spend two years hopping from department to department like a crown prince. That's a luxury position that is only possible in a fast growing economy and a tight labour market. Because it is only under those circumstances that companies can afford it."
Greater returns
For doubters, the old-style traineeship was the ideal opportunity to take a look around different companies or departments. For companies, it was the ideal mix of bringing in young talent and creating a distinct profile for themselves. At first, a traineeship was the highest possible achievement for the very best. An exclusive class for high-fliers. But in the course of time the concept started to erode. The traineeship became a trend: every large company worth its salt offered its future managers an internal training course lasting one to two years. From ABN Amro to Heineken, from the University of Leiden to Ahold.
Oscar de Lint: "Traineeships have always mainly focused on training general managers, so they were general training courses. In recent years, besides the need for managers there is a growing demand for good specialists. In addition to the more general traineeships, therefore, specialist traineeships have been set up to meet this demand for professionals. Simply because they're more cost-effective."
Shorter horizon
Nowadays most companies believe that you should first learn a skill and then gain the necessary experience on the work floor. The majority of companies have abandoned the idea that the best way for trainees to get to know the company is from a generalist perspective. They therefore want trainees to grow from a specialisation into the generalist approach required of managers. Oscar de Lint: "Many trainees were found to be unable to make the switch to the situation on the ground. The traditional traineeship was very one-sided: a lot of training and little work experience. While as a trainee the best way to learn about the company is from the work floor. The trend now is to first specialise during the Traineeship and the forthcoming job. It's only later that people step over to more generalist management functions, if at all."
The trainees themselves have also been partly responsible for the change from long-term, broad-based traineeships to shorter, more specialised programmes. A frequently heard complaint from trainees in old-style traineeships was that they were not given enough responsibility. They often felt they were being mollycoddled. Many found the work too superficial and after a year they were itching to finally start doing some real work. The trainees who had already set out a course for themselves were often unable to express themselves in the old-style traineeships. Another disadvantage of that wide ‘shopping' programme was that companies could not always end up placing everybody in the desired position. Ultimately, the promise that people would be able to fan out in all directions at the end of the process could not always be fulfilled two years later, which sometimes left people feeling frustrated.
Geared to the individual
In that sense, Oscar de Lint believes that the new programmes for Traineeships are much more effective: "The new-style trainee programmes are much better geared to the individual qualities and needs of the trainees. The uniform training courses have given way to personal programmes. In terms of training, we're now seeing a shift from the courses developed by large training institutes to courses custom-made by the companies themselves. Moreover, regular evaluation moments have been introduced. In the past, everybody was allowed to advance at the end of the programme. Now that's no longer a matter of course. If companies see that their traineeship is not right for you, they'll tell you. It's no longer the case that when you start somewhere, you can assume that you'll automatically cross the finish line."
