Erasmus +

About Erasmus + – ‘Changing lives, opening minds’

Erasmus+ is the European Union programme for education, training, youth and sport and it runs for seven years, from 2014 to 2020. Erasmus+ replaces seven programmes with one, so it is easier to access. Erasmus+ aims to modernize education, training and youth work across Europe. It is open to education, training, youth and sport organizations across all sectors of lifelong learning, including school education, further and higher education, adult education and the youth sector. It offers exciting opportunities for young people to then study, work, volunteer, teach and train abroad in Europe.

Erasmus + offers:

• Opportunities to study, train, gain work experience and volunteer abroad;
• Education, training and youth sector staff to teach or learn abroad;
• The development of digital education and the use of ICTs;
• Language learning;
• Recognition of skills, including those learned outside the formal educational system;
• Strategic Partnerships among educational institutions and youth organizations with peers in other countries in both their own sector and other sectors, in order to foster quality improvements and innovation;
• Knowledge Alliances and Sector Skills Alliances, to address skills gaps and foster entrepreneurship by improving curricula and qualifications through cooperation between the worlds of work and education;
• A loan guarantee facility for master’s degree students to finance their studies in another country;
• Teaching and research on European integration;
• Exchanges, cooperation and capacity building in higher education and the youth sector worldwide;
• Initiatives to foster innovation in pedagogy and progressive policy reform at national level through Prospective Initiatives;
• Good Governance in sport an initiative against match-fixing, doping, violence, racism and intolerance, particularly in grassroots sports.

Who will benefit:

More than 4 million young people, students and adults will gain experience and skills by studying, training or volunteering abroad through Erasmus +.

The program will also support over 125.000 institutions and organizations to work with peers in other countries to innovate and modernize teaching practice and youth work. Together they will help ensure that young people and adults get the skills they need to succeed in today’s world.

Mobility Projects for Young People and Youth Workers that can comprise of Youth Exchanges, European Voluntary Service and/or Youth Workers activities:

About 600.000 young people can go abroad as part of youth exchanges and the European Voluntary Service.

European Voluntary Service:

This activity allows young people aged 17-30 to express their personal commitment through unpaid and full-time voluntary service for up to 12 months in another country within or outside the European Union. Young volunteers are given the opportunity to contribute to the daily work of organizations dealing with youth information and policies, young people’s personal and socio-educational development, civic engagement, social care, inclusion of disadvantaged, environment, non-formal education programmes, ICTs and media literacy, culture and creativity, development cooperation, etc. Young people with fewer opportunities can receive additional support to enable their participation and would also be allowed to go on EVS for a shorter duration of time (from 2 weeks and up).

Youth workers’ training and networking:

This activity supports the professional development of youth workers, through the implementation of activities such as transnational/international seminars, training courses, contact-making events, study visits, etc. or job shadowing/observation periods abroad in an organization active in the youth field. All these activities are arranged by the organizations participating in the project. The participation of youth workers in such activities contributes to capacity building of their organization and should have a clear impact on youth workers’ daily work with young people. The learning outcomes should be further disseminated in the youth field.

Youth Exchanges:

Youth Exchanges allow groups of young people from at least two different countries to meet and live together for up to 21 days. During a Youth Exchange, participants, supported by group leaders, jointly carry out a work programme (a mix of workshops, exercises, debates, role-plays, simulations, outdoor activities, etc.) designed and prepared by them before the Exchange.

Youth Exchanges allow young people to: develop competences; become aware of socially relevant topics/thematic areas; discover new cultures, habits and life-styles, mainly through peer-learning; strengthen values like solidarity, democracy, friendship, etc. The learning process in Youth Exchanges is triggered by methods of non-formal education.

The rather short duration makes the involvement of young people with fewer opportunities appropriate; as such a Youth Exchange offers an international mobility experience in the safety of a group with the possibility of having an adequate number of group leaders to take care of the participants.

A Youth Exchange can also be a good setting for discussing and learning about inclusion and diversity issues. Youth Exchanges are based on a transnational cooperation between two or more participating organizations from different countries within and outside the European Union.