“Today, two million jobs across the European Union expect humans with proper qualifications,” says Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. She emphasizes the paradox of our times: despite unemployment, employers argue that they cannot find people with the right skills to fill vacant jobs. This need for qualifications is observed in countries with the highest unemployment, and therefore, inevitably, in Greece.
The European Union responds to this phenomenon with the development of the Erasmus program. The Erasmus +.
The program started in 1987. It recommends scholarship to study abroad for three to nine months. Students combine their studies with learning the country’s language, and generally come into contact with a different culture. Alternatively, they make holidays more … educational- a fact that attracts more and more. This has been proven by the statistical participants’ record per school year: in 2009-2010 the total of Erasmus students exceeded 200,000 scoring record. A year later, the number of 231,410 students of whom 190,498 went abroad to continue their studies, an increase of 7.2%, broke the record.
The scholarship amounts to 250 Euros per student per month, covering travel expenses. Additional supported and disabled. Each host country grants the Erasmus funding in two stages: 80% of the amount is paid in a month and the remaining 20% after the returning of the students to their home country. The European Union is working with the OOSA and now, after a 40% increase in the starting amount, invests 15 billion in Erasmus +.
“Erasmus broadens horizons and has already changed lives for more than three million people (…). The new program (…), the Erasmus +, will extend this capability to four million additional people, giving them the opportunity to study, to train, to work (volunteer) in a new country, a new culture, a new language with new friends, “said Mrs. Vassiliou.
What is the difference between Erasmus and Erasmus+?
The Erasmus+ aims to address the difficulty in reading and literacy, to strengthen the learning of foreign languages, to introduce and use new digital technologies in education, to update training systems, to fund postgraduate students, to strengthen the cooperation of universities with companies and finally, for the first time, to strengthen the sports.
The Erasmus program provides opportunities for students to develop many skills that will come useful in their professional careers. They learn to be autonomous, to cooperate with foreigners in a different language and introduces a different way of thinking. They open their minds. They progress and they evolve.
It involves all countries of the European Union, as well as Turkey, FYROM and the three EFTA / EEA countries, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Popular destination, however, is Spain, for weather conditions reasons, which hosted 30 580 students, followed by France with 23,173 and Germany with 19,120 students.
Specifically, in Greece, Democritus University of Thrace eminently receives more than 50 incoming Erasmus students every year. National Agency for the program designated the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY).
The European Union is committed to take action; to prevent the problem of unemployment, to dispel the fears and distrust of young people, to improve the way of life of Europeans, with education and with work. So according to Mrs. Androulla Vassiliou, “if our world today is more fragmented than ever, and some of our traditional institutions are weakened and depressed, then education is certainly a mean to discover our new values and a sense of identity”.
Source: Erasmus + – European Commission
Katerina Chliara, Student, International and European Studies