Brussels time
Erasmus+ is the EU funding programme for education, training, youth and sport for the period 2021-2027. Read more about ERASMUS+ here.
This call funds projects that promote a supportive environment for vocational excellence at national and/or regional level.
The Erasmus+ flagship initiative on Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) aims to be a driving force for reforms in the Vocational Educational and Training (VET) sector. The main objective is to ensure high quality skills that lead to quality employment and career-long opportunities, swiftly responding to the needs of an innovative, inclusive, and sustainable economy as well as to social needs, and contributing to increasing the attractiveness of VET. The initiative is closely aligned with the European Skills Agenda and the ambitions for the VET sector as agreed between the Member States in the 2020 Council Recommendation on VET.
The Centres of Vocational Excellence initiative support "upward convergence" on VET excellence through transnational partnerships, increasing the quality and effectiveness of VET in the participating regions and setting inspiring standards in the broader international community. The CoVEs include a broad spectrum of stakeholders, from VET providers and local and regional authorities to businesses and other employers, social partners, universities of applied sciences, etc. A crucial feature of the CoVEs is that they are based on partnerships that develop local "skills ecosystems" to provide high quality vocational skills to young people and adults, and contribute to regional development, innovation, industrial clusters, smart specialisation strategies and social inclusion.
The projects should aim at promoting an enabling and supportive environment for vocational excellence at national and/or regional level through support structures, wide dissemination of the Erasmus+ CoVE projects and their results, further developing synergies with the work of various stakeholders, also sharing similar thematic or sectoral approaches, mapping of national/regional funding opportunities and other existing policy initiatives in the countries participating.The projects should thereby increase the impact of the individual CoVEs, and promotetheir sustainability and scalability beyond Erasmus+ funding. The projects could expand activities, and/or partnerships and mainstream successful CoVEs projects at national level.
In particular the project should select at least five activities among those below (list of activities not exhaustive):
• Peer learning activities, networking, in-depth targeted analysis of national/regional frameworks for vocational excellence, set up of governance structures and advice from and to policy makers/stakeholders from the different countries;
• Support exchanges of good practices in a particular region/country and/or across the Erasmus+ CoVEs projects, with a thematic or sectoral focus, with the aim to expand activities and/or partnerships, scale up and mainstream successful projects at national level;
• Develop and implement an evidence-based methodology and/or engagement strategy, in order to secure the systemic impact of the CoVE initiative on the national and regional levels, including exploring a strong role for national and regional authorities;
• Create synergies at local/regional/national level among vocational excellence stakeholders, including with European or national initiatives;
• Promoting vocational excellence at regional and/or national level, and act as catalyst/inspiration to other stakeholders and to national and regional VET systems;
• Connect existing CoVEs to skills ecosystems / CoVEs in other economic sectors to create economies of scale and work on cross-sectoral societal challenges;
• Explore how to ensure the sustainability of the results of the CoVE projects, for example recognition of teaching and learning provisions, applying different approaches, in line with relevant national requirements, to support major roll out of the courses at national, regional level to learners and staff, etc.
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
• be legal entities (public or private bodies) active in the fields of education and training, research and innovation or in the world of work.
• be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
− Erasmus+ Programme Countries: EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)) or non-EU countries: listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Erasmus+ Programme (list of participating countries)
• for higher education institutions (HEIs) established in Erasmus+ Programme Countries (see above): be holders of the ECHE certificate (Erasmus Charter for Higher Education).
Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities), from a minimum of 3 EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme.
At least 3 applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities) must be beneficiaries (or affiliated entities) of ongoing or completed Erasmus+ CoVE projects.
Projects should normally range between 24 and 36 months.
Project budget (maximum grant amount): EUR 1 000 000 per project.
Brussels time
