Erasmus+ is the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. Its budget of €14.7 billion will provide opportunities for over 4 million Europeans to study, train, and gain experience abroad.
Set to last until 2020, Erasmus+ doesn’t just have opportunities for students. Merging seven prior programmes, it has opportunities for a wide variety of individuals and organisations.
The aim of Erasmus+ is to contribute to the Europe 2020 strategy for growth, jobs, social equity and inclusion, as well as the aims of ET2020, the EU’s strategic framework for education and training.
Erasmus+ also aims to promote the sustainable development of its partners in the field of higher education, and contribute to achieving the objectives of the EU Youth Strategy.
European Youth Work
In April 2018 CDYS youth worker in Fermoy, Rose Finnerty attended a BiTriMulti training in Bonn, Germany. This training was funded by Erasmus+ through our National Agency Leargas. This training provided Rose with the opportunity to learn all about the opportunities available to young people and youth services through the Erasmus+ programme. This training provided networking for organisations which allowed CDYS to establish a partnership with youth projects in Finland, Turkey and Bulgaria. This led to an application being submitted in October for a youth exchange in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria Erasmus+
In October, a group of eight young people along with Rose completed an application for a youth exchange with Erasmus+ to travel to Bulgaria in May 2019 with Turkey and Finland. We found out in December that the project was approved by our National Agency Leargas, so the group were all very excited for this opportunity to travel!
International youth work provides young people with new opportunities to travel and grow. For many of the young people this is their first time to travel outside of Ireland. This type of work empowers both young people and youth workers to tackle issues that affect all European youth. It creates opportunities for young people to work collaboratively with other young people in a non-formal environment. Traveling with young people strengthens the relationship between young people and youth workers, which is a key element of our work.
Erasmus+ gives both young people and youth workers valuable learning experiences. It is an exciting new venture for CDYS, and we are keen to hear the experiences that have influenced young peoples lives and capturing the impact along the way. CDYS’s vision of Erasmus+ going forward is to support youth workers in accessing funding opportunities, for international youth work training, youth exchanges, volunteers, job trainee-ships and many more. In 2019 there is two youth exchanges organized in October and May. The first youth exchange ‘Intercultural Connections’ included eight young people from Fermoy traveling to Bulgaria with Finland and Turkey. The project is about intercultural learning and exploring European diversity. The second youth exchange ‘Young Decision Makers’ is with 30 young people from the Regional Youth Councils from Fermoy, Mitchelstown, Mallow and Midleton. The project is about how humans impact the environment and is done in partnership with Regional youth councils in Finland.
In relation to Erasmus+ and CDYS, this year has been extremely progressive in looking at a European dimension in our work and giving young people a platform to explore themes and topics that relate to their everyday life.
Erasmus Trip to Finland Oct 2019 (Young Decision Makers Project)
We are delighted to announce that CDYS are taking a group of 30 young people from the Youth Councils in Mallow, Fermoy, Mitchelstown & Midleton to Finland this year. This project aims to look at human impacts on the environment and how the young people can contribute positively to this both in the community and their youth centres. The youth exchange will last for one week and the young people hope to network with the young people in Finland around best practice and what they can contribute on a European level. It is with great anticipation that this group will have an amazing experience and we look forward to hearing all about their unique and exciting venture. To find out more about how our trip to Finland went, please visit this page.
