ErasmusPro is out!

Today the European Commission has published the Erasmus Plus Call for Proposals 2018 with the expected €200 million budget increase compared to 2017 and introducing the Erasmus PRO initiative to boost long term mobility for VET learners.

The total budget of Erasmus Plus for 2018 is €2.7 billion, more than ever before.

As in 2016 and 2017, the 2018 Programme Guide places a special focus on encouraging projects supporting social inclusion (notably of refugees and migrants), as well as preventing radicalisation.

Regarding VET mobility projects, this year the programme introduces the ErasmusPro initiative to boost long term mobility for VET learners.

This action, included under the Key Action 1 of the programme (learning mobility), aims at facilitating and promoting 50.000 work placements from 3 to 12 months for VET students and recent graduates between 2018 and 2020. Their number needs to be added to the target of 650.000 young Europeans in vocational education and training who, under the current Erasmus+ programme for the period 2014-2020, should be enabled to benefit from a mobility grant.

The main feature introduced by ErasmusPro, compared to the rest of Erasmus Plus mobility projects, is that short “Advance Planning Visits” (APV) of staff from sending to hosting organisations (VET providers and/or companies) may be funded in order to facilitate interinstitutional cooperation, better prepare the mobilities and ensure their high quality. In particular, a maximum of 3 working days, excluding travel time, can be funded for one staff member of the sending organisation (such as teachers, trainers, international mobility officers, etc.) to the hosting organisation.

Another interesting aspect introduced by this initiative is that long-term mobility has been included as one of the award criteria when evaluating the relevance of any kind of VET mobility project.

The deadlines for the submission of applications in the field of VET are:

• Key Action 1 Mobility of Individuals: 1^st of February 2018
• Key Action 2 Strategic partnerships: 21^st of March 2018
• Key Action 2 Knowledge & Skills Alliances: 28^th of February 2018

The detailed conditions of this call for proposals, including priorities, can be found in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide.