Key Action 1: Mobility of Individuals

This Key Action supports:

• Mobility of learners and staff: opportunities for pupils, students, trainees and young people, as well as for professors, teachers, trainers, youth workers, sport coaches, staff of education institutions and civil society organisations to undertake a learning and/or professional experience in another country.

As regards pupils, students, trainees, apprentices, adult learners and young people, the mobility activities supported under this Key Action are meant to produce one or more of the following outcomes:

• improved learning performance;
• enhanced employability and improved career prospects;
• increased sense of initiative and entrepreneurship;
• increased self-empowerment and self-esteem;
• improved foreign language and digital competences;
• enhanced intercultural awareness;
• more active participation in society;
• enhanced positive interactions with people from different backgrounds;
• better awareness of the European project and the EU values;
• increased motivation for taking part in future (formal/non-formal) education or training after the mobility period abroad.

As regards staff, youth workers and professionals involved in education, training and youth, the mobility activities are expected to produce one or more of the following outcomes:

• improved competences, linked to their occupational profiles (teaching, training, youth work, etc.);
• broader understanding of practices, policies and systems in education, training or youth work across countries;
• increased capacity to trigger changes in terms of modernisation and international opening within their educational organisations;
• greater understanding of interconnections between formal and non-formal education, vocational training and the labour market respectively; 
• better quality of their work and activities in favour of students, trainees, apprentices, pupils, adult learners and young people;
• greater understanding and responsiveness to all kinds of diversity, e.g. social, ethnic, linguistic, gender and cultural diversity, as well as diverse abilities;
• increased ability to address the needs of people with fewer opportunities; 
• increased support for and promotion of mobility activities for learners;
• increased support for and promotion of mobility activities for learners;
• improved foreign language and digital competences;
• increased motivation and satisfaction in their daily work.

• Youth participation activities: youth-led local and transnational initiatives run by informal groups of young people and/or youth organisations to help young people engage and learn to participate in democratic life, raising awareness about European Union common values and fundamental rights, bringing together young people and decision makers at local, national and European level, as well as contributing to European Union common goals.
• DiscoverEU: action offering 18-year-olds the opportunity to have a short-term individual or group travel experience throughout Europe. As an informal learning activity, DiscoverEU aims at fostering the sense of belonging to the European Union of the participants and allow them to explore its cultural diversity. It also seeks to equip the young people with skills and competences of value to their future lives, as well as inspire them to embrace sustainable travel in particular and environmental conscience in general. DiscoverEU includes a general action, where the young people can apply directly on the European Youth Portal as well as an inclusion action. The DiscoverEU Inclusion Action targets young people with fewer opportunities to facilitate their participation in DiscoverEU on equal footing with their peers.
• The programme offers language learning opportunities to participants carrying out a mobility activity abroad. This support will mainly be offered via the Erasmus+ Online Language Support (OLS) tool, adapted as necessary to individual sectors, as e-learning offers advantages for language learning in terms of access and flexibility. In particular cases, that is, when online learning is not the best tool to reach the target group, additional forms of language support will be offered.
• Virtual exchanges in higher education and youth: online people-to-people activities that promote intercultural dialogue and soft skills development between individuals from third countries not associated to the programme, EU Member States or third countries associated to the programme. They take place in small groups and are always moderated by a trained facilitator.