Erasmus+ Adult Education Mobility

What is an Adult Education Mobility Project?

A ‘Mobility’ project is where an Adult Education organisation sends its learners or staff to another country to train or learn, to go on a teaching assignment, or to job-shadow. The organisation applies for funding to prepare and manage the project, and for the costs of travel and participation. Extra funding is available to include those with fewer opportunities. The minimum time a project can last is six months.

Who Can Take Part in a Mobility Project?

Any organisation in Ireland that provides Adult Education, or is otherwise active in Adult Education, can apply to Léargas for funding. This can include libraries, museums, prisons, NGOs and community education organisations. Download the list of all eligible organisations for 2023.

Both Adult Education staff and learners can take part in Mobility projects. ‘Adult Education staff’ means teachers, trainers, and other non-teaching experts and staff in Adult Education.

For an Erasmus+ Mobility project, Adult Education learner’ means “Any adult learner who is no longer in initial education or training and is returning to, or participating in, some form of non-vocational continuing learning (formal, non-formal, informal) or who experiences educational disadvantage or other obstacles that impacts their participation in a learning programme”. This is the definition provided by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

What Happens on a Mobility Project?

A Mobility project involves Adult Education staff or learners travelling to another Erasmus+ programme country. This could mean:

• Individual or groups of Adult Learners going to another country for peer learning, work-based learning or other innovative learning
• Staff teaching or training at a partner organisation
• Staff participating in courses or training abroad
• Staff job-shadowing in a partner organisation
• An organisation hosting invited experts, teachers or trainers.

What is the Funding for a Mobility Project?

Erasmus+ funding is available to contribute to costs in distinct categories. These categories are the same for both short-term and accredited projects. The information here gives you an idea of the funding categories available, but you must check the Erasmus+ Programme Guide for full details.

• Organisational Support – preparing and managing all phases of the project
• Travel – return travel costs from participants’ homes to the venue of the activity (for example, where they will work or attend a course)
• Individual Support – ‘subsistence’ costs of participants (for example, food and accommodation)
• Inclusion support – additional funding to enable people with fewer opportunities to take part
• Preparatory visits – for visits to hosting organisations before the ‘mobility period’ takes place
• Course fees – for training course enrolment fees
• Linguistic support – for language learning materials and training, where needed
• Exceptional costs – Such as costs for providing a financial guarantee, if the National Agency asks for it; or expensive travel costs (for example, when a participant is travelling to or from a very remote place).

There is no set amount of funding for an Adult Education Mobility Project. It is decided by the quality of the project planned, and the amount of funding available. As a guideline, in 2020 projects received funding from €11,000 to €56,000.  See Guide to Your Funding for budget allocations in 2021.

How Does an Organisation Find Courses and Partners?

The Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe, EPALE, is a great source of information for identifying courses or project partners. Experienced peers in Adult Education organisations in Ireland will also be help to with recommendations. Visit our Funded Projects section (link to funded projects section) to see which organisations have previously taken part.

What Happens Next?

Once the project is planned, the organisation can submit an online application before the deadline. The application requires a lot of detail and organisations should allocate at least six weeks to plan and write it.

Léargas evaluate applications using strict Erasmus+ criteria. We contact applicants with our decision three months after the deadline. If your project is funded, the organisation receives a large proportion of the funding at the start of the project. The organisation then carries out the project and submits a Final Report on its progress. The remainder of the funding is paid when this Final Report is approved.

Read our section on Applying For Erasmus+ Mobility for more detail.