ERASMUS+
Erasmus+ is the new EU umbrella programme for education, training, youth and sport from 2014 to 2020. It brings together all the existing education and training programmes as well as the Youth in Action Programme, and adds sport, for the first time in an EU programme. Having a single, simplified programme should make management more transparent and easier, ensure swifter access to funding and reduce administrative costs.
The aim is to foster learning mobility in Europe, institutional exchanges and cooperation between educational institutions, businesses, youth organisations, local and regional authorities and NGOs, and promote policy reform in all three fields covered by the new programme.
More than four million young people will be eligible for funding to study, train, carry out volunteer work or take part in youth or sports activities in an EU country other than their own during the programme's seven-year period.
Young people from the age of 13 to 30 will be able to go abroad to study at university, take up a traineeship or an apprenticeship or work as an assistant. They will also be able to teach or gain professional experience in another EU country.
Leaders of youth clubs and other youth workers will be able to get funding for exchanges, training and networking activities. Young people taking part in voluntary work, including through the European Voluntary Service, will also get support under Erasmus+.
Funding will also be available for young people and volunteers going abroad to take part in sporting activities, particularly those aimed at boosting social inclusion and at combatting doping, intolerance and discrimination.