Erasmus funding for sport, training and education soars
Students and young people in Wales were awarded £8.9m to follow education, training and sport programmes in the EU through the Erasmus scheme last year, more than £3m up on 2015.
The rise has been attributed to work promoting the Erasmus scheme by the British Council and Emily Daly, International School Linking Officer at Cardiff Council, rather than fears over Brexit.
A majority of the 63 successful applications for funding were made in the run up to the EU referendum last June and the rise could not therefore be seen as a rush to apply for Erasmus funding as a response to Brexit, a British Council spokesman said.
Latest figures show 63 applicants in Wales were awarded €8.9m in Erasmus+ funding in 2016, compared to €5.1m to 40 successful applicants in 2014.
In 2016 in total there were 116 applications from Wales requesting €15.6m – resulting in 63 successful applications, compared to a total of 90 successful and unsuccessful applications in 2014, requesting €11.6m.
An increase in the number and value of successful schools applications is the main reason for the funding boost. From 2014 to 2016 a total of €20.9m has been awarded to 149 projects led by organisations based in Wales.
Part of this funding supported 4,700 individual placements for learners, staff or young people of Wales to study, volunteer or train abroad between 2014 and 2015, with more people taking part through projects funded last year.
The British Council, in partnership with Ecorys UK, is the UK National Agency for Erasmus+, the European Union programme for education, training, youth and sport.
The UKNA published the latest Erasmus+ funding figures for Wales as the 30th anniversary of the Erasmus+ programme is being marked.
Cardiff Council applied successfully in 2016 for around €1.7m in funding for eight projects involving consortia of schools across Wales.
Emily Daly, International School Linking Officer at Cardiff Council said: “We have been able to draw on the support of the British Council to link with more schools around Wales and involve them in successful bids for Erasmus+, resulting in projects which help the schools to share best practice, internationalise their school, and fulfil the Welsh Government’s education policies.
“The growing interest in Wales is good to see, and we’re looking forward to starting projects on a range of topics, such as challenging extremism, raising achievement and additional learning needs.”
Ten other schools in Wales share more than €1m for strategic partnership projects, including Cadoxton Primary in Barry, Malpas Church in Wales Junior School in Newport, Ysgol Gymraeg Ffwrnes in Carmarthenshire and Ysgol Llwyn yr Eos in Aberystwyth.
The European Commission has recently launched the 30th anniversary campaign of the Erasmus+ European Exchange programme, which has enabled nearly 600,000 people from the UK to go abroad during the last 30 years.
In 1987, fewer than 1,000 pioneering university students from the UK participated in the first year of the original Erasmus scheme. Promotion of the scheme has seen this soar year to year.
During 2015-2016 more than 40,000 people from the UK went abroad on the Erasmus+ scheme, compared to an increase from 36,734 people in 2014, according to the European Commission’s Erasmus+ 2015 annual report.
Enthusiasm for the programme in the UK remained high in 2016, with the UK National Agency allocating more than €128m compared to more than €118m in 2015 and the UK budget is expected to grow to more than €200m in 2020 in the final year of the current programme, the British Council predicted.
Ruth Sinclair-Jones, Erasmus+ UK National Agency Director said: “We are delighted with the increased number of successful applications from Wales in 2016, and we’d like to encourage more and bigger applications across Wales and the UK for 2017, to take advantage of the higher levels of funding available in the 30th anniversary of the programme.
“2017 is the first year following the EU referendum result and we’d like to emphasise that successful applicants in 2017 will be awarded funding for the duration of their project.”