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1. Official guidelines on traineeships and apprenticeships

2. Promoting traineeships and apprenticeships

3. Recognition of learning outcomes

4. Funding

5. Quality assurance

Official guidelines on traineeships and apprenticeships

There are three types of traineeships and apprenticeships:

• Part of formal education (provided by schools)
• Part of requalification (provided by the Employment Office of the Czech Republic)
• Voluntary by employers, non-profit organisations and individuals

If relevant for the respective field of study, official basic guidelines on traineeships and apprenticeships for schools are contained within the Framework Educational Programme (FEP) - national curricular document. Not every field of study requires traineeships and apprenticeships. The FEP includes definitions of the educational programmes and specific conditions/requirements for every single educational programme. Specific conditions also include the amount of hours needed to be spent in apprenticeships as well which activities qualify for apprenticeships and which do not. The MEYS can change FEP. In the Period 2017-2021, the revision process of FEP was started. The National Institute for Education prepares the FEPs. 

There are no official guidelines for traineeships by employers, unless they are participating in any state programme supporting youth traineeships and apprenticeships.

Cooperation among educational facilities, professional and sectoral organisations is up to each educational facility. The National Institute for Education provides national support. For the cooperation, a school facility might need the approval of the founder (mostly the regional or local authority). Many educational facilities operate their own workshops where the students learn (e.g. bakery, repair shop/garage etc.)

Regional Labour Offices can cooperate with external providers if they are chosen in accordance with legal requirements for Public procurement.

The Youth Guarantee and the Policy of the EU helped to materialise the discussion on traineeships and apprenticeships at a national level. Following the Strategy Europe 2020, the Youth Guarantee scheme became part of the National Employment Strategy 2020. Since that, the Fund For Further Education has also run state activities to support traineeships and apprenticeships such as the initial project 'Internship for Youth' from 2012 with the second edition until 2015, and the 'Way for Youth' project for the period 2016-2020. However, this project was closed by the 30th of June 2018. 

In June 2018 the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic published outcomes of their investigation on the Fund for further Education which specifically targeted on the project Traineeships for Jobseekers 2 (period 2014 - 2016). Few discrepancies have been found. It also commented on the situation when the most of the users of the projects were by 75 per cent students of tertiary education (last year of the Bachelor or Master programmes), and only 15 per cent were the high school students. Percentage of pupils from vocational training was scant even if it was supposed to be an important target group.

From practice, it has been shown that during the high employment young people out of the tertiary education have only limited interest in such project. The young participants however evaluated their activities within the project as very good, as well as the employers saw their participation in the project as important and relevant.    

Promoting traineeships and apprenticeships

General facilitation of young people's participation in traineeships is not established; however, the projects of the Fund for Further Education help raise awareness on the issue.

Traineeships and apprenticeships provided by educational facilities are part of educational programmes and schools are thus in charge of promoting their educational programmes. Good conditions are often used in the competition for potential students.

Traineeships and apprenticeships provided by Employment offices are offered to their clients (job seekers). Unemployed persons can register on the list of job-seeking persons at the local Employment Office and their local Employment Office offers them relevant or accessible courses if they are available.

Employment offices are obligated to act following the Youth Guarantee scheme.

EU-Funded Initiatives and projects on traineeships and apprenticeships run by Fond of further education (closed since 2019). These projects already ended:

National Catalogue of Traineeships - provided information about traineeships, actual supply and demand of traineeships, template for traineeships

Way for Youth - supported the way to first employment

Education through practice - focused on improvement of existing work experience and skills, acquiring new knowledge and meet current labour market requirements, thanks to individual counselling learn to work better, become self-confident and become more attractive to employers.

Recognition of learning outcomes

Traineeships and apprenticeships organised by the schools are generally not certified separately but only as part of the diploma students receive at the end of their studies if they have successfully met all the set criteria.

Traineeships and apprenticeships offered by Employment Offices or via their external providers can be completed by obtaining a certificate. Certain conditions must be met:

• The course/workshop must be approved by the MEYS
• The course must be conducted as authorized by MEYS (scale, extent, professionalism etc.)
• Participant must meet the set criteria (test, limited amount of absence, exam etc.)

Non-regulated and voluntary traineeships and apprenticeships can be awarded with any certificate; however, recognition is not guaranteed. 

Funding

Traineeships and apprenticeships provided by the schools

• For school financing, please see the previous Chapter 3.4
• The conditions could be different at various schools, some institutions may have a very developed system of student participation in traineeships and apprenticeships, while some may have policies which can be used but are not directly dedicated only to traineeships and apprenticeships, and some are not offering any specific support. 

Traineeships and apprenticeships provided by the Employment Offices

• For Employment office financing, please see previous Chapter 3.4
• Funding of cooperation on traineeships and apprenticeships is regulated by legislation, requalification policy and active employment policy.

Quality assurance

Traineeships and apprenticeships provided by schools

• Must be following the accreditation granted by the MEYS
• The Accreditation Commission (AC) is responsible for quality assurance at higher education institutions
• The Czech School Inspectorate (CSI) 'evaluates and analyses operation in nursery, primary, secondary and vocational schools, as well as in school facilities (e.g. school canteens, youth dormitories) which have been entered into the Register of Schools and School Facilities'
• The MEYS establishes both AC and CSI

Traineeships and apprenticeships provided by the Employment Offices

• For traineeships and apprenticeships provided by an external provider, Labour Offices are eligible to inspect the quality of the education provided
• For the traineeships and apprenticeships accredited by the MEYS, MEYS can conduct inspections of education provided