Europe, member states and regions (respecting their strategies and policies) are strongly oriented to competitiveness, job market growth, jobs creation, local economy, SMEs, fight against long term unemployment e.g. Internships have become key tool in today's economy. The study ”Door Opener or Waste of Time? The Effects of Student Internships on Labour Market Outcomes” provided new evidence on the causal effects of student internships on wages for university graduates. The estimates from instrumental variable regressions suggest that work experience gained through student internships increases wages by around six percent. The empirical findings further suggest that graduates who completed an internship face a lower risk of unemployment during the first year of their careers. Student internship experience can be regarded as a “door opener" to the labour market in terms of wages. Institutions of higher education are expected to incorporate labour market demands into their study curricula.

For those reasons the recommendations to member states are:

• Improve the quality of traineeships, in particular regarding learning and training content and working conditions, with the aim to promote fluent transition from education to work by putting in practice the following principles for a Quality Framework for Traineeships:

• Require that traineeships are based on a written agreement concluded at the beginning of the traineeship between the trainee and the traineeship provider;

• Require that traineeship agreements indicate the educational objectives, the working conditions, whether an allowance or compensation is provided to the trainee by the traineeship provider, and the rights and obligations of the parties under applicable EU and national law, as well as the duration of the traineeship, as referred to in recommendations