Description - Erasmus+ Youth and Sport

Erasmus+ is the European Union's programme in the field of education, training, youth and sport for the period 2021-2027. Its main aim is to support the educational, professional and personal development of young people, contributing to sustainable growth, employment, social cohesion and the strengthening of European identity and active citizenship. 

Erasmus+ is a key programme for the construction of a European education area and for policy cooperation under the EU Youth Strategy 2019- 2027 which, under the motto "engaging, connecting and empowering young people", aims to boost civic engagement and youth participation in democratic life and to increase the quality of informal and non-formal learning and youth work.

The Youth and Sport strand of Erasmus+ supports all young people in the field of non-formal and informal education. Non-formal learning is understood as learning that takes place outside the formal educational programme. It has a participatory approach and is voluntary and therefore closely linked to the needs, aspirations and interests of young people. Informal learning refers to learning through activities of everyday life, being mainly of a practical nature.

The competencies acquired are recognised through the Youthpass certificate, a European tool that documents and recognises the knowledge acquired, through non-formal education, in projects developed in the framework of the Erasmus+ programmes: Juventud and European Solidarity Corps. 

The programme's priorities are:

  • Inclusion and diversity
  • Digital transformation
  • Environment and combating climate change
  • Participation in democratic life, common values and civic engagement.

There are two types of actors in the Erasmus+ programme:

  • Organisations: they are the ones who present and manage the projects. Some types of projects can also be submitted by informal youth groups. Organisations can participate as partners in projects submitted by other organisations, this is a good way for organisations with no previous experience to enter the programme, although it is not a necessary condition to act as a partner.
  • Participants: are the natural persons involved in the projects submitted by the organisations. 

In general, both organisations and participants must be established in an EU Member State or in a third country associated with the Programme. However, some actions are also open to participants from third countries not associated with the programme. 

Depending on their management, actions are divided into centralised and decentralised. The centralised ones are managed by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) and the decentralised ones by the different national agencies.

As regards decentralised Actions, Erasmus+ supports, in the field of youth and sport, different types of projects under the following lines. 

MOBILITY (Key Action 1)

  • Youth Exchanges (KA152)
  • Youth Worker Mobility Projects (KA153)
  • Youth participation activities (KA154)
  • DiscoverEU Inclusion Action (KA155)
  • Staff mobility in the field of sport (KA182)

COOPERATION BETWEEN ORGANISATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS (Key Action 2)

  • Cooperation Partnerships (KA210)
  • Small-scale partnerships (KA220)

As regards centrally managed actions in the youth field, the following actions are supported: 

  • Virtual exchanges.
  • Partnerships in the fields of education, training and youth presented by European NGOs.
  • Associations in the field of sport
  • United European Youth.

In order to improve the quality and impact of the Erasmus+ Programme, different activities are carried out to provide expertise, resources and information to organisations and other actors involved in the field of youth and sport. These are called Training and Cooperation Activities (TCA).