Erasmus+

1.Mobility

a.Mobility for VET learners: Traineeship/apprenticeship abroad for 2 weeks to 12 months in a company, other workplace or in a VET school with periods of work-based learning in a company.

b.Mobility for VET staff: Training, job shadowing or observations, teaching assignments abroad for 2 days to 2 months for teachers, in-company trainers, training managers, guidance counsellors, administrators.

A VET organisation sending learners and/or staff abroad and the coordinator of a national VET consortium. Individuals cannot apply directly for a grant but they are the ultimate beneficiaries of the grant as learners (apprentices or VET students and recent VET graduates) or staff such as teachers and trainers or international mobility officers and guidance counsellors etc.

How to access the funding

Contact the national agency of your country. A list of national agencies is available at http://ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus.

2.Cooperation for Innovation

What is being funded

Strategic Partnerships: Cooperation between any type of organisation active in any field of education, training and youth or other socio-eco­nomic sectors as well as organisations carrying out activities that are transversal to different fields (e.g. local and regional authorities, recognition and validation centres, chambers of commerce, trade organisations, guidance centres, cultural organisa­tions) for 2 or 3 years that leads to development and implementation of innovative practices for high quality teaching, training, learning, insti­tutional modernisation and societal innovation. Strategic partnerships in VET could focus on developing partnerships between education and employment, including work based learning.

Who can benefit

1. Strategic Partnerships are transnational and involve a minimum of 3 organisations from 3 different programme countries.

How to access the funding

1. Applications for strategic partnerships should be submitted to the national agency where the applicant organisation is established.

3. Policy reform

What is being funded

Peer learning and mutual learning activities through working groups or regular meetings of Directors General for Vocational Education and Training, putting forward evidence on various apprenticeships systems and their benefits through studies and conferences, support to Implementing European tools on certification and quality assurance in VET (ECVET and EQAVET), pol­icy experimentations, specific calls for proposals. The objective of the call is to support the introduction or modernisation of apprenticeships within initial VET systems. Grant applications must come from at least two entities from at least two different pro-gramme countries, thus ensuring that the work is done in partnership at national level.

 The Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) is one of the main EU financial resources to support the implementation of Youth Guarantee schemes. It was launched to provide support to young people living in regions where youth unemployment was higher than 25% in 2012. It was topped up in 2017 for regions with youth unemployment higher than 25%in 2016.

The Youth Employment Initiative exclusively supports young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEETs), including the long-term unemployed or those not registered as job-seekers. It ensures that in parts of Europe where the challenges are most acute, young people can receive targeted support. Typically, the YEI funds the provision of

• apprenticeships
• traineeships
• job placements
• further education leading to a qualification

The YEI supports the implementation of the Youth Guarantee. Under the Youth Guarantee, Member States should put in place measures to ensure that young people up to the age of 25 receive a good quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of leaving school or becoming unemployed.

The Youth Employment Initiative is complementary to other actions undertaken at national level, supported in particular by the European Social Fund (ESF), that aim to implement youth guarantee schemes. The ESF can reach out beyond individuals, helping reform employment, education and training institutes and services.