Gaining experience abroad via the Erasmus+ programme

Since 2013, there has been a virtual doubling of the numbers of vocational school teachers and company-based trainers who have used the Erasmus+ education programme to complete a stay abroad that counted towards their qualification. This is one of the results to emerge from an analysis conducted by the National Agency “Education for Europe” at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (NA at BIBB), during which data for this group of persons was evaluated for the first time. A high degree of satisfaction is particularly revealed in the statement that Erasmus+ has improved the social, language and cultural competences of participants whilst also enhancing the international alignment of the home institution.

Recent years have also seen a continual growth in the number of trainees and vocational school pupils completing an internship at a European partner institution abroad in order to learn and work. According to the NA analysis, the “typical” learner spending time abroad via the Erasmus+ programme is predominantly female (60%), aged between 18 and 25 and most likely to come from Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia (65%). Such a person will undertake an average period of 18 days in a different European country, preferably the United Kingdom or Spain (52%).   

Industrial clerks, just under 14% of whom use Erasmus+ to go abroad, lead the way at the level of the individual occupation. They are followed by management assistants for wholesale and foreign trade and mechatronics fitters. By way of contrast, the corresponding figures for trainees in occupations such as tax clerk and sales assistant for retail services are comparatively low.

The “Mobile in Europe with Erasmus+” data analysis carried out by the NA at BIBB proves the effects which European projects within the scope of the Erasmus+ programme are able to exert on both participants and home institutions. This publication is the first to provide a comprehensive analysis of data from a completed Erasmus+ funding cycle. The results supplement the statements from the 2017 study “Stays abroad in vocational education and training” (2017 Mobility Study) by adding specific data on duration of stays, the destination countries and the participants themselves. This information relates to measures implemented between 1 June 2016 and 31 December 2018 as part of the Erasmus+ programme.

The current issue of the NA’s journal “Education for Europe” also shows that internationalisation of vocational education and training is playing an ever greater role in the globalised world of work. The magazine looks at the various aspects of this main thematic focus and makes it clear how closely the issue is linked with the effectiveness of the Erasmus+ programme.

Further information on the NA data analysis is available at www.na-bibb.de/mobil-mit-erasmus (German only).

The issue of the NA journal “Education for Europe” can be accessed at www.na-bibb.de/service/publikationen (German only).

Point of contact at the NA at BIBB:

Dr. Gabriele Schneider; Tel.: 0228 / 107-1641; email: gabriele.schneider@bibb.de

Specimen copy requested if printed.