According to the Apprenticeship Law (Law nº 10.097/2000), an apprentice is a young person who studies and works. That is, the teenager must attend regular school and be enrolled and attending a professional technical education institution agreed with the company, where he receives training in the profession for which he is training
In addition to being regulated, Apprenticeship gives young people labor rights, such as vacations and thirteenth.
Therefore, when becoming a young apprentice, the teenager moves away from child labor, in which conditions are often precarious.
Understand the differences between apprenticeship and child labor and learn how to hire an apprentice.
When working early, adolescents give up school: the school dropout rate among victims of child labor is 13.9%. Among those who do not work, it is 3.4%. As a result, he loses opportunities to qualify and get a job with better conditions in the future..
In addition to removing basic rights from children and adolescents, such as access to education, leisure and sports, child labor causes several health problems, such as fatigue, sleep disorders, irritability and respiratory problems. Even heavy work, which demands more from the body, can harm your own physical development, causing spinal injuries and producing deformities. According to data from the Ministry of Health, children and adolescents have accidents six times more than adults in work activities.
According to the latest Continuous Pnad, 1.758 million Brazilian children and adolescents aged between 5 and 17 were in child labor. Of these, 706,000 experienced the worst forms of labor exploitation. Data refer to 2019 and do not include adolescents who worked legally.
Of the total number of child laborers in Brazil, 66.1% are black or brown and 78% are between 14 and 17 years old, and the vast majority live in a vulnerable situation.
It is worth remembering that the survey refers to pre-pandemic Brazil. Another study, carried out by UNICEF, points to the worsening of child labor during the covid-19 crisis.
UNICEF assessed the income and work situation with 52,744 vulnerable families from different regions of São Paulo. The data were collected from April to July 2020 and point to the intensification of child labor, with an increase of 26% among the families interviewed in May, compared to those interviewed in July.
In 2021 alone, considered the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labor, 1,807 civil inquiries, 264 lawsuits and 664 TACs (Terms of Commitment for Adjustment of Conduct) were initiated in the context of combating child labor in Brazil.
According to the Constitution, any type of work is prohibited for minors under the age of sixteen, except in the condition of apprentice, from fourteen years of age.
Already, according to the Consolidation of Second Labor Laws, the work of minors under 18 years of age cannot take place in dangerous or unhealthy conditions. In other words, technical and administrative work is allowed, as long as it is carried out outside areas of risk to health and safety.
In practice, the apprenticeship contract must be in writing and with a fixed term of up to two years, with the possibility of rehiring. In it, the employer undertakes to provide the apprentice with technical-professional training compatible with their physical, moral and psychological development. In the same way, the young person makes a commitment to perform all the tasks necessary for this training.
In addition, it must be noted in the Work Card and the remuneration proportional to the minimum wage. The apprentice still enjoys all labor and social security rights granted to other employees
But despite being provided for by law, learning is still not a reality in all companies. According to data from the Public Ministry of Labor, less than 10% of companies comply with the determination to have between 5% and 15% of their staff in the role of apprentices. It is estimated that more than 3 million vacancies could be created for young people between 14 and 24 years old with compliance with the law – a greater number than the number of victims of child labor in the country.
Hire an Apprentice
In order to hire a young apprentice, it is necessary to have a partnership with a training institution. That is, the organization responsible for the theoretical classes. Practical lessons take place in the contracting company. Since 2005, the Ramacrisna Institute has been accredited for the training of these adolescents.
Your company can become a partner of the Ramacrisna Adolescent Apprentice project, adapting to the Apprenticeship Law. In addition, it also receives tax and tax incentives. Being able, thus, to contribute to the formation of a teenager who will be formed according to the company’s culture and can be carried out.
According to the legislation, companies with more than seven employees must hire apprentices. On the other hand, non-profit entities and small companies are not required to be hired, but can participate in the project.
