Lifelong Learning Platform | LLLP - European Civil Society for Education

Learning mobility for all

Learning mobility is a powerful learning experience, where an individual moves from his/her everyday context, and has to open up and adapt. It is a great way to develop social, intercultural and interpersonal competences for life, and to promote a sense of common European belonging. It is also important to develop one’s employability, and there are many researchers showing these various positive outcomes.

When we know the positive impact of learning mobility for personal development, social inclusion and civic participation, turning learning mobility from an exception into a rule at all levels of education and for all educational actors should be our collective aim. This means overcoming financial but also personal barriers.

Widening access to mobility programmes should not be at the detriment of their quality (see our recently published Erasmus+ survey). This means that the EU but also the Member States and the regional/local authorities should invest much more in learning mobility and include it as part of the curriculum in general education.

Quality learning mobility is about money but it’s more than that. Sending and hosting organisations, families and halls of residence, have also a strong role to play in making the best out of a mobility experience. 10 years after the Quality Charter for Mobility it is important to stake stock on its implementation and identify ways to do things even better.

Resources

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    LEARNING MOBILITY FOR ALL: A LIFELONG LEARNING APPROACH TO TARGETS, PROCESS AND MONITORING

    Member States have been working on common priorities in education and training, so the whole Union harmonises their work for the next decade. The new Strategic Framework for Cooperation 2021-2030 continues to include lifelong learning and mobility as priorities, as it was in previous EU strategies, but fails to put forward learning mobility targets for 2030. In short, there is no benchmark to measure the EU’s progress in “making learning mobility a reality for all” – not only a […]

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    LLLP Working Group on Internationalisation of Education Gets Off the Mark

    Working towards meaningful international cooperation and inclusive mobility
    LLLP was founded around internationalisation and mobility (which was cross cutting to all education and training sectors): there was a clear need to share intelligence and knowledge about the topic.
    It was also part of our mission and vision and part of the Manifesto from 2015 (Building the Future of Learning). Since then mobility has been high in the EU agenda and it has been slowly extended beyond Higher Education. LLLP […]

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    Expert Network on Recognition of outcomes of learning periods abroad in general secondary education

    Another step toward a European Education Area: A new informative website on pupils’ mobility
    Learning mobility is one of the key policy priorities promoted by the EU. It is a fundamental pre-requisite for the development of competences crucial for active participation in society and in the labour market. For this reason, Ministries of Education of EU countries have committed to ensure that by 2025 all pupils in Europe will also be able to spend a study period abroad.
    However, this is not […]

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    Quality and effective apprenticeships: towards a true learning experience?

    On 15 March, the EPSCO Council adopted a recommendation on a framework for quality and effective apprenticeships which is said to help young people to enter the world of work.
    The recommendation encourages the development of a highly skilled and qualified workforce which is responsive to the needs of the labour market. By applying common criteria for the quality and effectiveness of apprenticeships, member states will be better able to develop and promote their national apprenticeship schemes.
    The recommendation […]

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    Press release – Culture and Education for All

    Culture and Education for All: Building the Skills for More Resilient Societies
    Brussels, 16 March 2018
    Civil society organisation[1], European and International Institutions, permanent representations, universities, teachers and stakeholders came together on March 14th to discuss a common approach to linking culture and education. In light of the European Year of Cultural Heritage and the European Commission’s 2017 Communication on “Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture” the debate aimed at discussing possible synergies between the two policy fields […]

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    LLLP Provides Input on European Solidarity Corps

    Two months ago the European Commission launched the idea of creating a European Solidarity Corps by which young people will be able to volunteer across Europe to help respond to crisis situations. The LLLP welcomed the initiative, but together with member organisations, it came up with some ideas how to make sure it works well in reality. In particular, it emphasised on the importance of training and support for volunteers, developing a quality charter and creating synergies with other initiatives, […]

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    Consultation on the European Charter on Quality in Learning Mobility in the Youth Field

    As learning mobility is increasingly being employed as a pedagogical tool both in formal and non-formal contexts, issues of quality become a more pressing concern than before. And for a good reason: good quality in learning mobility will ensure that outcomes be optimised and that processes of recognition be facilitated. Moreover, there is a – sometimes very direct – correlation between quality and quantity: the more we know about quality and how to achieve it, the more confident and effective […]

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    #RecogniseStudyAbroad: Promoting Pupil Mobility

    The highly positive impact of learning mobility on youth has been proven, recognised and supported via concrete measures and programmes that demonstrate Europe’s willingness to place learning mobility high on the educational and youth agendas. Despite this, the school period spent abroad is not recognised in many European countries. EEE-YFU and EFIL launched a campaign for the recognition of the study period abroad. Partners are EPA, EUROCLIO, KeyCoNet and OBESSU. The objective of the #RecogniseStudyAbroad campaign is to raise awareness among policy-makers and educational stakeholders about the lack of recognition of long-term pupil […]

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    Moving to learn: a new mobility scoreboard for Europe

    The mobility scoreboard for initial vocational education and training (IVET), a new tool to assist policy-makers in the area of learning mobility developed by Cedefop in close cooperation with the European Commission, was presented at an event in Thessaloniki on 3 June. Participants included Erasmus+ agencies, IVET institutions, teachers and trainers, guidance personnel, students’ associations, companies involved in mobility projects, Cedefop’s ReferNet partners and EU-level stakeholders. A prototype with information on 28 countries (26 EU Member States, Iceland and Norway) is […]

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    #RecogniseStudyAbroad is launched!

    Temporary schooling abroad is not recognised in many European countries. This means that students often need to attend an additional year of school, once back in their home country. Lack of recognition is a great barrier of access to school exchange programmes and to mobility in general: students and their parents are afraid of “losing a year” and falling behind; teachers and school heads often discourage students’ participation in study abroad programmes, or only allow academically high achieving students to participate, as they […]

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