The European Commission published a Green Paper to promote youth mobility for learning and to start a real debate about this.
Spending a period in another country for studying, learning, work experience or volunteering is one of the fundamental ways in which young people can strengthen their future employability as well as their personal development. With this Green Paper the Commission is launching a public consultation (open until 15 December 2009) on a range of questions: How can we convince more young people to go abroad for learning? What obstacles there are at present? How can we get a wide range of players - the Commission, Member States, regions, education and training institutions, NGOs – to join forces in a new partnership for learning mobility?
The EU has a long track record of supporting young people through various programmes and initiatives. But going abroad still remains the exception rather than the rule and it is more accessible to some groups, such as students, than to others, such as vocational trainees and apprentices.
In 2006, around 310,000 young people were able to go abroad with support from European programmes. This represents a mere 0.3% of the age group of 16-29 year olds in the EU, which shows that much more could be done in this area.
European funds
