What is the maximum duration of the internship?

2024-08-29 16:11:22

To avoid abuses on the part of companies, which can benefit from cheap labor, rules are in place, especially on the minimum and maximum period of post-baccalaureate internship or internship college and in high school.

How many months of internship per year can be completed?

In France, The duration of the internship at the company is a maximum of six months for the academic year. This amount of time is a process to ensure that interns find opportunities for learning and teaching, not mindless work. This six-month amount is calculated based on your actual presence as an intern within the host organization. For example, an internship day is counted when you are there for seven hours, whether consecutive or not. Similarly, one month of internship will correspond to 22 days of presence in the company.

Therefore, to reach the maximum duration of six months, you must accumulate 924 hours of effective presence within the company during your school or university year. This French policy aims to protect the rights of educators and to ensure that their institutional experience is consistent with the educational objectives defined by their educational establishment. In addition, if you are hired within three months of the end of the internship, you should know that the duration of the completed internship will be deducted from your probationary period and taken into account for the calculation of the seniority.

What is the minimum duration of the internship?

In France, the duration of the internship, for compensation by the company to be mandatory, is more than two consecutive months or equivalent to 309 hours of effective attendance in the event that the internship is terminated. In other words: the maximum duration of an unpaid internship is two months. After two months, the internship must be paid. This responsibility applies to all internships carried out as part of the academic course, whether in a company, administration, community or group. Below two months, the internship can last a few days or a week, as for the third year internship (1 week) or the second year internship (2 weeks or twice 1 week), the host organization does not need to pay you a fee, although some employers choose to do this voluntarily.

For internships of more than two months, the minimum award is €4.35 per hour of actual attendance, or approximately 15% of the Social Security hourly ceiling. Short internships, usually carried out during the first professional immersion or as part of an educational project, are therefore not necessarily accompanied by a grant, but they must always comply with other legal requirements: signing the internship contract and respecting the your right as an employee.

What are the hours of the internship?

The internship schedule in France is also governed by specific rules to ensure a non-exploited learning experience. And for this reason, the maximum number of weeks of the internship in the host organization must not exceed that applicable to employees. In general, this means that you cannot, a priori, work more than 35 hours per week, in most organizations.

Apprentices benefit from the same rights as employees regarding working time, especially with regard to daily and weekly hours, daily and weekly rest, and public holidays. For example, the maximum daily working time must not exceed 10 hours, and you are entitled to benefit from a minimum rest of 11 consecutive hours between two working days.

Internships must ensure a safe and healthy environment, similar to that of permanent employees. All interns are entitled to regular breaks and adequate facilities, such as access to the company canteen or even meal vouchers. Schedules should also take into account your specific needs as an intern, such as transportation or family responsibilities.

What flexibility in working hours does the company benefit from?

The schedule of the internship in France can be adapted according to the needs of the host organization and the educational obligations of the internship. For example, the intern may benefit from the flexibility to attend classes or exams, a provision which must be specified in the intern agreement. In addition, there are part-time internships that may allow you to combine your work experience with your studies, and these schedules may include lunch breaks or vacation time.

In certain sectors, such as healthcare or hospitality, interns may be required to work outside of traditional office hours, sometimes including weekends or public holidays. These exceptions must be governed by specific exceptions and respected in accordance with the applicable law. The internship contract, signed by the company, the educational establishment and itself (therefore published in 3 copies), must explain them to guarantee that you do not submit to excessive workloads. Apart from these special cases, the internship cannot be assigned to night jobs.

Bonus question: what is the ideal length of the internship?

If the internship is short: less than two months, you receive only one notice, so it is an internship that is useful for your orientation at the beginning of the course, to define a future specialization or career, but not enough to improve it in full. CV and allow you to hit the mark with future recruiters. Six months: an already very long internship, which allows you to be fully trained by an internship manager who will really take the time to train you and make you responsible for certain tasks. A truly complete experience which allows you to really travel in a complex, while being very comfortable in a company. Depending on the company and the missions, it is up to you to define the perfect duration, but 4 or 5 months seems like a good deal to combine training, orientation and improvement of your CV.