Pupil and student mobility
Pupils’ mobility is foreseen by Erasmus+ (Lifelong Learning Programme up to 2013) in different ways for all kinds of schools at every educational level.
Under Key Action 2, funding is available for Strategic Partnerships in so far as they help to deliver the project’s outcomes. In addition to project meetings between partners, it is possible to plan joint training events, study visits, project activities among groups of students, language exchanges, long-term mobility of staff for teaching or training and study mobility of pupils.
In particular, activities could be:
- Long-term study mobility of students (2 to 12 months); thanks to a learning agreement, upper secondary school students can spend a period abroad in a partner institution. This type of mobility foresees that schools evaluate the period spent abroad and recognize the mobility. Reciprocity is not mandatory. Students should be at least 14 years old.
- Short-term exchanges of groups of pupils (5 days to 2 months).
Project activities in groups of students. There is no age limit.
Teacher mobility
Since 1995, when the European programmes started (Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci first, then LLP and finally, from 2014, Erasmus+), teacher mobility has increased considerably. The applications come mainly from primary and upper secondary school teachers. Teachers can participate not only in professional development courses, but also in job shadowing activities or conferences. A high percentage of teachers applies for mobility in periods during which school activities are interrupted in order not to cause organisation difficulties to schools which generally cannot afford to pay for temporary teachers.
Key Action 1 of the new Erasmus+ programme supports learning mobility. The Erasmus+ program doesn't allow applications from individuals directly. Each school makes one only mobility project for school staff engaged in both teaching and non-teaching roles, at every educational level. The European experience becomes an opportunity of professional growth and new competences development useful for the school as a whole.
All educational institutes providing general, vocational or technical education, from pre-primary to upper secondary level, can submit an application.
To successfully apply for funding for a Key Action 1 mobility project a school should be aiming to support the professional development of some or all of the school staff. Funding can be used to support school staff engaged in both teaching and non-teaching roles, at every education level. A consortium made up of minimum two schools and coordinated by Regional school authorities (Ufficio Scolastico Regionale - USR) can also submit an application. In this case the coordinator can only be a USR and the schools only two.
Mobility projects can foresee different types of activities in one of the countries participating in the Programme, like teaching assignments abroad, structured courses or training events, job shadowing.
Each project can last either one or two years, starting from 1/6/2015. Mobility activities can last from two days to two months.
Teacher mobility can also be implemented through e-Twinning projects which also pertain to the Erasmus+ Programme.
An e-Twinning project enables two or more teachers from different countries to develop together their teaching activities through the tools provided by the e-Twinning platform, integrating traditional teaching approaches with new technologies. Teacher mobility takes place through workshops, open to all countries, jointly organised by national units and the e-Twinning central unit.