Involving young people in caring for the environmental sustainability is really important to Europe’s view on education.

People of all ages should learn how to know more, do better, and care about living in a way that’s good for the Earth.

This includes using resources wisely, being healthy, and working together to make Europe greener and more sustainable.

Discover the actions and initiatives that Europe is taking to spread the importance of environmental education among young Europeans.

The aim of the intiatives

The European Commission aids EU Member States by:

• Providing learners and educators with the necessary knowledge and skills for a more sustainable society.
• Assisting education institutions in integrating sustainability into teaching, learning, and overall operations.
• Promoting a collective understanding of the significant changes required in education and training to support sustainability and the transition to a greener future.

What is the EU doing?

The European Commission is actively involved in developing initiatives to enhance education for a more sustainable future.

Among these initiatives is a proposal for a Council Recommendation on learning for environmental sustainability. The purpose is to encourage and support Member States in incorporating environmental education into their systems and promoting collaboration on this aspect across the European Union.

In conjunction with this Recommendation, the Commission is in the process of creating a European Sustainability Competence Framework.

This framework outlines the essential knowledge, skills, and attitudes that learners should have to address climate change and contribute to sustainable development. The overarching goal is to establish a shared understanding of these competences, ensuring that everyone agrees on what students at all educational levels should learn to promote eco-friendly practices.

The EU actions about environmental education

Among the initiatives promoted by the European Union there are the following:

1. Council Recommendation on learning for the green transition and sustainable development. With this initiative it is possible to actively involve students and staff, local authorities, youth organisations and the research and innovation community in learning for sustainability.
2. Learning for sustainability working group. The European Commission helps put the Recommendation into action through a special group that focuses on sustainability in education. This group has over 40 members, including people from education ministries, social partners, NGOs, and international organizations.
3. European competence framework on sustainability. This framework, available in all official EU languages, can be used in school and training programs, as well as in formal and informal learning environments.
4. Erasmus+ Teacher academies. Erasmus+ Teacher Academies is a key part of the current Erasmus+ program. Its aim is to form partnerships among European teacher education and training providers, enhancing the European and global aspects of teacher education in Europe.

Discover more about the initiative

If you want to know more about the various European initiatives for the environment visit the official website!

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L'articolo Education for Environmental Sustainability  | EU Actions proviene da Youth Networks.

Open the 2024 Erasmus Plus Call for Proposals.

Overview

With a substantial budget of €4.3 billion for the upcoming year, Erasmus+ will maintain its commitment to facilitating transnational experiences for school pupils, higher education students, and vocational education and training participants. The program will also extend opportunities to adult learners, educators, staff, and young people engaged in non-formal learning programs.

In response to the impact of inflation on those studying abroad and to encourage broad participation, the program will elevate mobility grant levels. In line with the 2023 approach, individual support grant amounts for those undertaking learning experiences abroad will be adjusted by 5.9% in most mobility actions for the 2024 call. Additionally, a 12.27% increase was implemented in 2023.

In 2024, the program will introduce enhanced incentives for sustainable travel, positioning it as the default option. Participants from remote areas, islands, or places lacking sufficient rail networks will receive appropriate compensation for utilizing sustainable modes of travel. Notably, travel contributions will be extended for intra-European higher education mobility, ensuring more consistent funding rules across all sectors.

Cooperation activities under Erasmus+ will persist in bringing individuals and organizations together to address the program’s four overarching key priorities: inclusion, active citizenship and democratic participation, and green and digital transitions.

These activities can range from supporting local-scale projects to transnational initiatives such as European Universities, dedicated to transnational university alliances, Centres for Vocational Excellence, and Erasmus+ Teacher Academies, all playing pivotal roles in the green and digital transitions of education and training systems.

Erasmus+ remains committed to supporting Ukraine through projects that encourage incoming learning mobility, empower individuals with new skills, combat disinformation, and facilitate the integration of refugees into new educational systems.

The program will also maintain its central role in promoting common EU values. All program beneficiaries and their implemented activities will align with and promote values such as human dignity and rights, freedom, democracy, equality, and the rule of law.

Under this Erasmus+ call for project applications, any public or private body active in the fields of education, training, youth, and sport can seek funding either via Erasmus+ National Agencies or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).

Background

The total budget available for Erasmus+ from 2021 to 2027 is €26.2 billion, supplemented by around €2.2 billion from the EU’s external instruments. Since 1987, the Erasmus+ program has benefitted over 14 million people through participation in various education, training, and youth mobility activities, continuously expanding its reach.

Next Steps

The Commission has launched the call for proposals under the Erasmus+ initiative for 2024, following the adoption of the 2024 work program.

The Commission is in the process of preparing the mid-term evaluation of the ongoing program (2021-2027) and the final evaluation of the predecessor program (2014-2020). This will be submitted to the Council, European Parliament, Committee of the Regions, and the European Economic and Social Committee. A public consultation has been initiated in all 24 EU languages to collect opinions on Erasmus+, running until 8 December.

More Information

We talked about the 2024 Annual Work Programme of Erasmus Plus and European Solidarity Corps.

We’ve also underlined the difference and improvements compared to the 2023 Annual Work Programme.

Other Resources

2024 Erasmus+ work programme

2024 Erasmus+ call for proposals

2024 Erasmus+ programme guide

Factsheet on new Erasmus+ 2021-2027 programme

Skills and Talent Mobility

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Do you know who is a “UN Youth Delegate” and what they do?

They are young people who participate in the meetings of the United Nations, through an initiative that aims to involve young people more in the United Nations’ work.

Each country in the programme chooses one or more young individuals to represent them at meetings. The selection process and responsibilities vary by country.

Currently, 22 EU Member States are part of this programme. Unlike the UN and African Union, the European Union doesn’t have youth representatives.

The UN Youth Delegates engage in important youth discussions at the UN. They also speak up for young people’s rights in Europe, and expand the EU’s youth representation globally.

The aims of the project

The programme aims to improve EU coordination and representation on youth matters and more at the United Nations.

It will help carry out the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027 and the 2020 EU Council Conclusions on Youth in global actions by promoting dialogue between different generations and cultures and involving youth in policy decisions.

Additionally, a network of alumni will be created to connect youth delegates over the years.

The tasks of a youth delegate differ by country but usually involve giving advice to their delegation on youth-related matters and getting involved in their delegation’s activities, like going to meetings and informal discussions.

Youth delegates can join various United Nations meetings, with many taking part in the General Assembly. Some also attend specific commissions of the Economic and Social Council.

How to become a Youth Delegade?

Some countries already pick young representatives through specific programmes.

You can find out if your country has such a programme by reaching out to government bodies like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Youth Council, or United Nations Associations.

If your country doesn’t have a programme for choosing a youth delegate, you can try to convince your country that having a youth representative at the UN General Assembly is important.

If they agree, the responsible body needs to start the process of selecting a youth delegate.

Discover more about the initiative

If you want to learn more about this topic and would like to become a Youth Delegate visit the official website for more information!

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Erasmus Plus 2024 Annual Work Programme

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L'articolo Join the UN Youth Delegate Programme proviene da Youth Networks.

According to Regulation (EU) 2021/817, the Erasmus+ Programme serves as a pivotal instrument for fostering the educational, professional, and personal development of individuals in education, training, youth, and sport across Europe and beyond. The program’s general objective is to contribute to sustainable growth, quality jobs, social cohesion, innovation, and the reinforcement of European identity and active citizenship. Aligned with the European Pillar of Social Rights and the European Skills Agenda, the program has specific objectives focusing on learning mobility, cooperation, quality, inclusion, creativity, and innovation in education, training, youth, and sport.

Key Actions and Objectives of Erasmus+

The Erasmus+ Programme is structured around key actions (KA1, KA2, KA3), including learning mobility, cooperation among organizations, support to policy development, and Jean Monnet actions. The program’s architecture, now streamlined for Sport activities, mirrors the structure for Education and Training and Youth chapters. This stability ensures continuity from the previous 2014-2020 program while aiming to increase impact. The program’s scope covers all education and training sectors, spanning school education, vocational education and training, higher education, adult learning, youth, and sport, contributing to the realization of a cohesive European Education Area.

L'articolo Erasmus Plus 2024 Annual Work Programme proviene da Youth Networks.

Are you interested in incorporating young people into your international activities? Do you want to learn about funding opportunities for your local projects? Join the SALTO Seminar on European Solidarity Corps: Activating Citizens – Municipalities/Local Authorities Making Use of the European Solidarity Corps.

The seminar will take place online on 13-20 June 2023 from 9:30 to 15:00 CET and is hosted by the Cyprus National Agency for E+ and ESC, the SALTO European Solidarity Corps Resource Centre, and the European Goes Local network. If you want to know more, keep reading!

Overview of the Seminar

The main aim of the seminar is to motivate and support municipalities to make use of the European Solidarity Corps Programme as a tool for social cohesion and solidarity. The seminar will explore how to bring sustainable added value to the local community by supporting the active engagement of young people in voluntary activities or solidarity projects.

The SALTO Seminar on European Solidarity Corps will:

– Present the funding opportunities of the new European Solidarity Corps Programme 2021-2027 to demonstrate how the programme works in practice.

– Highlight inspiring examples from Cyprus, other European countries, and the partner regions that illustrate how municipalities and their youngsters can benefit from the European Solidarity Corps.

– Showcase how volunteering within the European Solidarity Corps can foster social innovation, inclusion and can lead to a sustainable added value in communities.

– Offer space for networking, exchange of good practices and counseling through group work sessions.

– Present other opportunities for municipalities such as Erasmus+ and CERV that want to strengthen their existing networks through involving the young generation will be part of the seminar as well.

Target Group and Application Procedure

This seminar is recommended for a diverse range of participants including youth workers, leaders and project managers, policy makers, as well as representatives from municipalities, local authorities and youth councils and clubs.

This Seminar is for 30 participants from Erasmus+ Youth Programme countries Austria, Belgium – DE, Belgium – FL, Belgium – FR, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia. If you’re interested in participating, you can submit your application until 23/05/2023. The deadline to apply is 23 May 2023.

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On February 2, 2023, the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) and the European Commission will organise an online information day to discuss the Forward-Looking Projects 2023 program. The initiative’s goal is to explore, develop, test, and evaluate innovative (policy) ideas with the potential to become mainstream and enhance education and training systems.

The Forward-Looking Projects 2023 have been divided into three lots: 

• Digital education; 
• Vocational Education and Training;
• Adult learning;

Each lot has its own set of goals, and proposals must meet at least one of them. The entire budget allocated for the activity is €35,000,000.

Let’s take a closer look at these 3 areas!

Digital Education

EU’s Digital Education Action Plan aims to support high quality and inclusive digital education, focusing on three priorities: 

• education technology; 
• effective pedagogical approaches for primary and secondary education;
• teacher training to tackle disinformation and promote digital literacy.

Vocational Education and Training (VET) 

The VET plan aims to implement the principles and objectives of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, the European Skills Agenda and Council Recommendation on vocational education and training for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience. Proposals under this lot should address two priorities: 

1. micro-credentials for employability;
2. partnerships and networks to improve the attractiveness of VET;

Adult Learning

The Adult Learning lot is responsible for putting into action the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, the European Skills Agenda, and the Council Recommendation on Upskilling Pathways: New Opportunities for Adults. Proposals submitted under this lot should seek to achieve one of two goals: 

• building national registers of quality-assured and relevant training options;
• supporting the Pact for Skills programme;

Conclusion

For further information on the 2023 Erasmus+ Forward-Looking Projects, please see the 2023 Erasmus+ Programme Guide, which is available in all official EU languages at the link given. More information is also available on the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal. 

Discover more about the 2023 Erasmus+ Forward-Looking Projects at an interactive online event organised by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) and the European Commission on February 2nd, 2023 from 2:00 PM to 5:45 PM CET.

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L'articolo Forward-Looking Projects 2023: Innovative Approaches to Education and Training proviene da Youth Networks.

The project aims to become a tool to implement the recent council conclusions on the Mobility of Young Volunteers and Cross-Border Solidarity.

This will be achieved by a series of activities to strengthen the visibility of volunteering in the programme and foster the collaboration on volunteering and solidarity among stakeholders. Different activities will support the development of European volunteering and strengthen the cooperation in Europe and beyond.

Objectives

• Increasing the knowledge about the European Solidarity Corps programme and its impact
• Supporting the knowledge exchange around European volunteering and solidarity
• Advocating for better conditions for European volunteering
• Increasing the visibility of European volunteering
• Fostering the collaboration among stakeholders and strengthening the community(ies) of practise

Background and Needs

With the new programme generation starting 2021, the European Solidarity Corps programme has undergone a shift towards a pure volunteering scheme for local and international volunteering.

There is a need to explore the following questions together as a network of National Agencies:

• What does the shift to volunteering imply for the community of practice?
• What are the new trends? What are the risks?
• How can we improve the conditions for different strands of the ESC (Individual, Teams, Solidarity Projects) and look deeper into complementarity of national and EU volunteering?
• What is needed to strengthen European volunteering?

Find the all documents here.

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Research on volunteer-based youth work

L'articolo SNAC | Strategic National Agencies’ Cooperation 2022–2027 proviene da Youth Networks.

About the research

The sample was made up of the International Youth Organisations (INGYOs), National Youth Councils (NYCs), national and local youth organisations and volunteer-based youth workers from 15 European countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Latvia, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland). The research participants were encouraged to reflect on the concept and value of volunteer-based youth work and to elaborate on how it has been implemented in practice, in terms of support systems, education, training and career prospects for volunteers in youth work.

Download the research here.

The research participants were encouraged to reflect on the concept and value of volunteer-based youth work and to elaborate on how it has been implemented in practice, in terms of support systems, education, training and career prospects for volunteers in youth work. They were invited to identify the main challenges and opportunities in these areas, and to suggest policy recommendations for different audiences (governments, agencies, youth organisations, etc.).

Results

The research findings reveal that the understanding of the concept of volunteer-based youth work is lacking amongst various members of the youth work community of practice, and that its relationship with the concept of volunteering is unclear.

The value of volunteering in youth work is beyond doubt, and is linked to both individual and social aspects.

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European Youth Conference Report 2022

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It was an opportunity to give young people a voice on these issues that are close to their hearts.

European Youth Conference

Organised by the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, in collaboration with the National Youth Council – CNAJEP – and with the support of the European Commission, the European Youth Conference took place online on 24-26th January 2022.

The event brought together more than 300 participants, including youth delegates from all over the EU, representatives of Member States’ ministries, youth organisations, the European Commission, the European Parliament to discuss how to “Engage together for a sustainable and inclusive Europe“.

The conference opened the 9th cycle of the EU Youth Dialogue, an EU wide participatory mechanism. Its aim was to define the priorities for the work of the 9th cycle in relation to the European youth goals

• “for a green and sustainable Europe”, and
• “inclusive societies”.

This conference focused in particular on how young people can be actors of change for the protection of the environment. 5 projects from young Europeans received an award by a jury in the framework of the “Young and Eco-committed” competition.

Report

The day after the event, the young delegates presented the conclusions of the conference to the European ministers for education and youth informal meeting on 27 January 2022 in Strasbourg.

Find all the work and conclusions of the young delegates in the conference final report.

Download it in English.

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How To | Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Projects

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The youth sector has been at the forefront of developing good practice in the area of sustainability and this is not a trend that is new to the sector; it is something that has been developing for many years, but it is true that in recent years there’s has been much more of a policy focus and, following that increased funding.

As the EU-CoE Youth Partnership Exploratory Study: Sustainability in Learning Mobility points out:

“The youth sector has been active in the sustainability field for many years. There are numerous initiatives coming from the grass roots….. Non-governmental organisations have been developing sustainable practices, among them learning mobility ones, since long before specific policy strategies were published. However, in 2021, major EU programmes providing funds for learning mobilities in Europe, Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps, introduced a new priority focusing on the environment and fighting against climate change, which has already boosted initiatives devoted to this topic.”

The study goes on to lay out some examples of youth-led organisations who are working extensively on the topic of sustainability.

A journey to sustainable, quality youth mobility

Whilst it’s clear that there’s work to be done in further mapping and spreading good green practices in learning mobility, it’s also evident that young people don’t need to be persuaded on this front. Their activism is changing minds and policies, but more needs to be done, both on a practical level and on embedding the topic in youth work and in citizenship education.

On a practical level, when developing youth mobility projects, there are many ways to build in greener practices. The Q!App has plenty of “food for thought” and tips in this area, see for example, its preparation plan for more environmentally friendly projects.

Build Best Practices

To ensure youth mobility activities follow good practice when it comes to sustainability, the Youth Partnership between the EU and the Council of Europe has published a handy guide:

• “Greening the Youth Sector – Sustainability checklist” which lays out some key criteria for making youth projects, including mobility projects “greener” – from venues and accommodation – checklist etc, through to food, waste and, of course, travel – the document gives top tips on ensuring a lower impact on the environment and embedding good practice in organisations. But, as it states in the publication, the youth sector still has a way to go on its journey to becoming greener: “Environmental awareness and thinking sustainably are part of a continuous process of learning, innovating and (re)creating.”

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L'articolo How To | Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Projects proviene da Youth Networks.