Learning mobility in vocational education

It helps learners to find better employment, adapt to new work environments and learn about innovative practices and technologies. Through mobility, learners and apprentices can improve their foreign language skills and their understanding of different cultures.

The ‘Europe on the Move’ Council Recommendation, adopted in May 2024, aims to make learning mobility an integral part of all education and training pathways, with 12%of vocational education and training (VET) learners benefitting from mobility by 2030.

The Recommendation aims to increase the share of people in the EU who benefit from a learning period abroad, and the share of people who have fewer opportunities (including persons with disabilities) who take part in learning mobility. It also promotes EU as a learning destination to talents from countries outside the EU.

The Recommendation also includes a comprehensive policy framework for apprentice mobility to overcome specific difficulties at individual, organisational and systemic levels that limit their access to mobility.

In general, mobility also contributes positively to the attractiveness of apprenticeships and to making it a quality and effective learning pathway, as defined in the 2018 European Framework for Quality and Effective Apprenticeships.

The EU is already promoting VET learners’ and apprentice mobility through ErasmusPro under the Erasmus+ Programme to facilitate long-term learning mobility (longer than 3 months).

The 2021–2027 Erasmus+ Programme substantially reinforces its support for VET, with a budget of almost €5 billion to support the sector. It will provide opportunities for mobility abroad for 1.6 million VET learners (including apprentices) and staff in the 2021–2027 period. Additional financial, organisational and linguistic support for long-duration mobility has also been introduced.

Erasmus+ also promotes support structures and networks for apprentice mobility through the 2024 ‘European policy experimentations’ action. Funded projects should foster a strategic approach to the mobility of apprentices and to implementing the appropriate measures to support learning mobility abroad, within or outside of the Erasmus+ programme. The indicative budget for this topic is €10 million.

In December 2023, the Commission also presented a toolkit to promote apprentice mobility within the framework of the European Alliance for Apprenticeships. This toolkit can help employers, VET providers and apprentices to reap the benefits of learning mobility by providing concrete suggestions, key steps and good practice examples.