With a budget of €14.8 billion going into the 2014-2020 period, Erasmus+ seeks to encourage greater cooperation between European education and business in the hopes of increasing the skills and employability of students and the competitiveness of European economy.

Erasmus+ and your Business

In a business climate which faces ever increasing globalisation, Erasmus+ offers businesses a way to connect to Higher Education on a European or global level.

Key Action 1, which involves the mobility of staff and students, supports traineeships for higher education staff and students through the 33 programme countries. These traineeships can enable companies to directly connect with foreign markets via new language skills and local knowledge, introduce new business practices and ideas and develop links with higher education institutions.

Key Action 2, the establishment Strategic Partnerships and Knowledge and Sectoral Skill Alliances, enables companies and institutions to engage in structured, transnational partnerships and projects to facilitate the development and implementation of new innovative practices, encourage entrepreneurship, the exchange of knowledge and new teaching practices throughout Europe.

Businesses may also be interested in checking out the European-University Business Forum. The forum was set up by the European Commission in 2006 to encourage links between university and business at the European level through a series of initiatives.

Key Action 1 - Student and Staff Mobility

Every year, 100,000s of students, from a wide field of studies, take part in the programme. These internships can last anywhere between 2 to 12 months and are supported by a grant supplied by the European Commission. The programme enables Irish students to work abroad in return for allowing other students to be placed in Ireland.

Why take on an Erasmus+ Intern?

An Erasmus+ intern offers a number of advantages over a traditional work placement. Just over two in five European small and medium-sized companies are active in some form of international activity; about a quarter are involved in direct export. Good language management is therefore increasingly necessary to prevent linguistic and cultural barriers from occurring in new and expanding markets. Erasmus+ internships allow companies’ access to interns who are natively fluent in a wide variety of languages, in addition to whatever other assortment of skills and qualifications they possess.

Interns also bring with them an in-depth local knowledge of their home markets. What better way to figure out how to sell to a foreign country than to take on someone from there? Export intensive businesses, for example, can use the opportunity offered by a foreign intern to test an export plan without breaking the bank, potentially developing some prospects and making some initial contacts. Similar opportunities are available to those organisations which work in, or are seeking to expand into, foreign markets.

International interns also bring with them an international approach to work. A new intern can bring new ideas and methods with them. This is especially true in the case of Erasmus+ interns who have the benefit of being educated in a totally different country. Ideas from Germany or Sweden obtained from an trainee can go a long way towards improving a business’s best practise.

How to Apply

Organisations interested in applying to receive an Erasmus+ intern(s) should create a profile on the free web portal: http://erasmusintern.org/. From there, companies will be able to post internship offers, search for interns, see all the applications to your vacancies and decide which intern you want to recruit.

Once an intern has been decided upon you will then be directed to the placement office of the intern’s host institution. Companies are then free to discuss the conditions of the internship with the intern’s host institution. Once both sides have reached a satisfactory resolution, a training agreement will be signed by both parties and the intern’s international office will arrange their grant.

If you have need of any further information about the programme or you have any question about the application process, please contact the Higher Education Authority at erasmus@hea.ie.

Key Action 2

Key Action 2, the establishment Strategic Partnerships and Knowledge and Sectoral Skill Alliances, enables companies and institutions to engage in structured, transnational partnerships and projects to facilitate the development and implementation of new innovative practices, encourage entrepreneurship, the exchange of knowledge and new teaching practices throughout Europe.

Depending on their aim strategic partnerships can last anywhere between 6 months to three years, while Knowledge and Sectoral Skill Alliances typically last between 2 to 3 years. Both are supported by large grants from the Erasmus+ fund.

Erasmus+ aims to establish 25,000 Strategic Partnerships, involving 125,000 institution/organisations, and overseeing nearly 300 Knowledge and Sector Skills Alliances, involving 3,500 education institutions and enterprises working together throughout Europe in the period up to 2020.

With a budget of €14.8 billion going into the 2014-2020 period, Erasmus+ seeks to encourage greater cooperation between European education and business in the hopes of increasing the skills and employability of students and the competitiveness of European economy.

Presentation on the Erasmus+ Key Action 2

Erasmus+ - Key Action 2

National Erasmus+ Offices - Contact

Key Action 2 - Factsheet

European University-Business Forum

First held in 2008, the University-Business Forum was established to provide a unique platform for stakeholders from both the academic and the business sector in Europe. Serving as a common space for exchange and debate, its aim is to bridge what is almost a cultural gap between these two sectors and to highlight the advantages and shared value of sustained, closer cooperation.

The forum gives them a chance to meet at European level to discuss, network and exchange ideas and good practice. Closer links between business and higher education can:

• Encourage the transfer and sharing of knowledge
• Create long-term partnerships and opportunities
• Drive innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity

There are many examples of successful cooperation between academia and industry in Europe. However, the level of co-operation varies considerably between different countries, universities and academic disciplines.

This format has proved a great success in generating new ideas and pinpointing those areas for development in University-Business Cooperation at a European level. Various policy initiatives have resulted from past events including the Knowledge Alliances launched in 2011 –strategic partnerships between universities and business with an emphasis on innovation and knowledge exchange, now part of Erasmus+ –andHEInnovate; an online self-assessment tool developed in cooperation with the OCED for entrepreneurial higher education institutions looking to bring about change and improvement.

To see when the next conference is going to take place keep an eye on the events page of the Education and Training page of the Europa website.

Higher Education Institutions in Ireland with an Erasmus Charter