Short answer. Yes. The Labor Code lists, among the contents every learnership agreement shall include, a commitment to employ the learners as regular employees upon completion of the learnership if they so desire. The choice at the end belongs to the learner, not to the employer.

What the law says

A commitment to employ the learners if they so desire, as regular employees upon completion of the learnership.

Labor Code, Article 75 — Learnership Agreement. Read the full provision →

It is required content of the agreement, not an optional kindness

The article says an employer wishing to take on learners shall enter into a learnership agreement that shall include four things, and the fourth is a commitment to employ the learners if they so desire, as regular employees upon completion of the learnership. The verb is mandatory in both places. So an agreement that stays silent about what happens at the end, or that reserves the decision entirely to management, is missing something the Code requires it to contain — and the absence is a defect in the employer's document rather than a gap in the learner's rights.

"If they so desire" puts the option on the learner's side

This is the part most often misread. The commitment is the employer's; the choice is the learner's. A learner who completes the training and wants the job is meeting the condition the clause sets, and nothing in it asks for the employer's separate willingness at that point. Conversely, a learner who has found something better is not bound to stay — the phrase gives an option, not an obligation to accept. Reading it as a mutual re-negotiation at the end of training drains the clause of any content.

The other required terms are worth checking together

The same list requires the names and addresses of the learners, a learnership period which shall not exceed three (3) months, and wage rates beginning at not less than seventy-five per cent of the applicable minimum wage. Those items are how the arrangement stays a learnership rather than becoming cheap labour without an end date. An agreement running longer than three months, or paying below that floor, has departed from the article regardless of what the parties called it.

If the commitment is not being honoured

Start with the document. Read what your agreement actually says about the end of the period, and keep any message in which you asked to be taken on and were refused, with the reason given. Note the completion date and whether you kept working past it. The agreement is subject to inspection by the labour department under the same article, so a programme that omits the commitment altogether is a matter that can be raised there. Take the agreement and the correspondence to a lawyer together.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.