2-year traineeship with repayment clause – should a graduate accept this?

Hi everyone,

I’m a recent graduate and I’ve been offered a 2-year traineeship. The role offers good exposure and experience, which I know is important early in a career.

However, the contract includes a clause saying that if I resign during the traineeship, I have to repay the full stipend paid so far. On top of that, if I complete the programme and then leave within 12 months of being offered a permanent role, I’d need to repay a large training cost (pro-rated).

The working hours are up to 45 hours per week, and as a trainee there’s no overtime or salary increase during the programme.

I’m struggling because while I want experience, the repayment clause makes me feel financially and mentally trapped if things don’t work out. I don’t mind rules and structure, but this feels heavy for a graduate position.

I’ve been thinking about this for days and it’s honestly causing a lot of stress. For those who’ve been through similar schemes or early-career contracts — is this normal, and would you accept something like this as a graduate?

Any honest advice or perspectives would really help. Thank you.

Reply 1

UniofLawstudent2

Official Rep

Hi,
I assume you understand why clauses like that exist, but it's good your considering your circumstance.
In my opinion, the best thing to do is assess your goals, after all, the negative consequences of accepting the scheme only come into play if you quit ahead of time, so consider if the experience is extremely valuable for your career and whether you’re confident you want to stick it out, if so it could be worth it.

Consider alternatives: Could you get similar experience elsewhere without repayment risk?

Financial contingency: If you left early, could you realistically repay the stipend/training cost without major hardship?

Red flags vs. normal practice: The clause isn’t unusual, but feeling trapped financially is a warning to ensure the role aligns with your career goals. Many graduates avoid schemes with such heavy repayment clauses unless they’re certain it’s right for them.

Hope this helped,
Ulaw,
Alfred.

Reply 2

Emma:-)

Entertainment Forum Helper, Careers Forum Helper

Original post

by erro_25

Hi everyone,
I’m a recent graduate and I’ve been offered a 2-year traineeship. The role offers good exposure and experience, which I know is important early in a career.
However, the contract includes a clause saying that if I resign during the traineeship, I have to repay the full stipend paid so far. On top of that, if I complete the programme and then leave within 12 months of being offered a permanent role, I’d need to repay a large training cost (pro-rated).
The working hours are up to 45 hours per week, and as a trainee there’s no overtime or salary increase during the programme.
I’m struggling because while I want experience, the repayment clause makes me feel financially and mentally trapped if things don’t work out. I don’t mind rules and structure, but this feels heavy for a graduate position.
I’ve been thinking about this for days and it’s honestly causing a lot of stress. For those who’ve been through similar schemes or early-career contracts — is this normal, and would you accept something like this as a graduate?
Any honest advice or perspectives would really help. Thank you.

Quite a few jobs have clauses where if they put you through x,y or z training and you leave within a certain time period afterwards then you had to pay it back. Its not unusual.
I know that when i worked at mcdonalds, i got trained up to be a crew trainer. Those that went onto do the management training got put through the training, but if they left within 2 years of completing the training then they had to pay it back.
Companies usually have these clauses so that they are only training up people who are going to stay for a while. And if people dont (for whatever reason) then the company gets the cost of training them back.

Have you had any other job/training offers?
Apart from this clause, what do you think of the job? Does the job sound good/something you would want to do? Does it seem like somewhere you would want to stay?
It might be worth taking the job and training. The place doesnt have to be forever- if you want to leave a few years down the line (after the perios has passed for paying back the training cost) then you can do.