Unpaid internships must have taken place before 1 January 2024 and, in the case of paid internships, they must have taken place before 1 November 2011. The measure benefits former university, vocational training, higher artistic, professional or sporting education students, who may apply within a period of two years for a maximum of five years of contributions.

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The recovery of internships or research training periods as years of contributions

The Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz.the Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz.

The Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, has approved the order that will allow students who in the past completed training placements, external academic placements or participation by university graduates through official doctoral studies in research training programmes, both in Spain and abroad, to recover their contributions.

Those who have participated in these programmes will be able to sign a special one-off agreement with the Social Security General Treasury, which will allow these contribution periods to be counted for a maximum of five years.

The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, stresses: ‘Today is a very important day. This measure represents the government’s best definition of social justice. She adds: ‘We are extending the rights of the youngest, of people who are now entering the labour market, but we are also redressing imbalances and opening the window to those who did not have that option in the past’.

The measure benefits former university students; former vocational training students (except when the internships were provided under the intensive vocational training scheme), as well as former students of higher artistic education, professional artistic education and sports education in the education system.

Also those university graduates who, through official doctoral studies, had participated before 4 February 2006 (date of entry into force of the Statute of Research Staff in Training) in research training programmes, both in Spain and abroad.

‘The Government has listened to the clamour of many groups whose work has been the driving force of progress for our society for years. We should, as a society, be proud that the public sector is synonymous with guarantees and trust. That is why the time has come to provide thousands of people with a way to recover this right,’ said the minister.

Requirements
Among the requirements for signing the agreement are that unpaid internships must have taken place before 1 January 2024 and, in the case of paid internships, they must have taken place before 1 November 2011. In order to benefit from this special agreement, the interested parties must prove the duration of the training programmes in which they have participated.

These former students will be assimilated to employees for the purposes of their inclusion in the General Social Security Scheme. Thus, the contribution for the training periods recognised in this special agreement will be for the purpose of covering retirement benefits and permanent disability and death and survival benefits arising from common contingencies.

The contribution base for the special agreement will be constituted by the minimum contribution base for common contingencies corresponding to contribution group 7 of the General Social Security Scheme in force in 2024, to which a reduction coefficient of 0.77% will be applied.

Once the Social Security General Treasury has calculated the total amount of the contribution to be paid for this special agreement, it may be paid in a single payment or in instalments in a maximum number of monthly payments equal to those for which the agreement is formalised.

This order shall enter into force on the first day of the month following its publication in the Official State Gazette.

Since 1 January 2024, students on training placements, whether paid or unpaid, have been included in the Social Security system. Since then, almost 570,000 students have been registered for at least one day, according to data from the Social Security General Treasury.

‘It is now up to all of us to make young people aware that being part of this system and generating future rights with an earlier start to their contribution career has only advantages. The system needs them as much as they need it. I am committed to working tirelessly to bring Social Security closer to this group and to make them feel that they are an unequivocal part of one of the pillars of the Welfare State”, concluded Saiz.