Erasmus+ is the European Union’s flagship international education and training programme. It funds international mobility, which in practice means it pays for students, teachers and young people to travel abroad for study visits, work placements, job shadowing, and longer educational exchanges. The EU has been running it since 1987, and over that time it has put more than 12 million people through some kind of international programme.

That is not a small number. For context, that is roughly the population of Belgium.

The programme covers schools, further education colleges, universities, vocational training providers, youth organisations and adult education bodies. If you run any kind of organised learning in Europe, there is almost certainly a strand of Erasmus+ designed for you. And from January 2027, that includes UK institutions for the first time since Brexit.

What Erasmus+ actually pays for

The funding structure is straightforward. Erasmus+ grants cover travel costs, accommodation, subsistence (food and daily expenses), and in some cases preparatory visits where staff travel ahead to set things up. Participants do not contribute financially. The institution applies for the grant, receives the money, and the programme runs at no cost to students or their families.

This is why it matters so much for schools serving disadvantaged communities. A funded international study visit is the only realistic route to international experience for many young people. Without Erasmus+, a week in Italy or Spain is simply not something their families can afford.

The amount available per participant varies by programme type and destination. A typical outbound study visit for UK secondary pupils to a European country runs to several hundred pounds per person in grant funding. Work placements and longer-duration mobilities attract higher rates. Institutions with participants from lower-income households may also qualify for additional top-up funding.

Key Action 1 and Key Action 2

Erasmus+ organises its activities into what it calls Key Actions. Most schools and colleges will encounter two of them.

Key Action 1 covers individual mobility: people travelling somewhere. Study visits, work placements, job shadowing, language courses. One institution applies, sends or receives participants, and reports back on outcomes. This is the most common type and the one most relevant to schools and further education colleges.

Key Action 2 covers partnerships and cooperation between institutions in different countries. Two or more organisations work together on a shared project over one to three years. It requires more administrative capacity but can produce substantial results: curriculum resources, teacher training materials, jointly developed courses. For schools with an appetite for deeper international collaboration, Key Action 2 is worth considering once you have one or two Key Action 1 projects under your belt.

For a school new to Erasmus+, Key Action 1 is where to start.

How it differs from the Turing Scheme

The UK ran its own replacement programme called the Turing Scheme after Brexit took British institutions out of Erasmus+ in 2021. IBD Partnership Group has delivered Turing Scheme projects since the programme launched and has run successful projects to destinations including Spain, Bangladesh, China and beyond.

Turing covers outbound mobility only: UK students going abroad. It does not fund inbound mobility (international students coming to the UK) and it does not fund partnerships between institutions.

Erasmus+ does both. It also covers a wider range of countries, runs on longer funding cycles (up to two years per grant rather than Turing’s annual cycle), and offers higher funding rates per participant in many categories. The application process is broadly similar. If your school has already run Turing Scheme projects, the Erasmus+ paperwork will feel familiar. The main difference is scale.

Who can apply in the UK from 2027

The UK government confirmed in May 2026 that Britain will re-associate with Erasmus+ from January 2027. Applications are expected to open in November 2026 for projects running in the 2027/28 academic year. The British Council is expected to act as the UK National Agency, meaning applications will go through them rather than directly to the EU.

Eligible institutions include:

• Primary and secondary schools (including independent and faith schools)
• Further education colleges
• Higher education institutions
• Vocational education and training providers
• Youth organisations
• Sports clubs
• Adult education providers

What the application process looks like

Institutions apply through the National Agency’s online portal. The application asks you to describe your project: who is going where, for how long, what they will do, what they are meant to learn, and how you will measure whether they learned it. You also need to identify a partner organisation in the destination country.

Approval rates vary, but institutions that apply with clearly defined learning objectives and established partner relationships do significantly better than those applying with vague plans. IBD Partnership Group maintains a 95% funding application success rate, built over two decades of project design and application development for Erasmus+ and Turing Scheme projects alike.

Once approved, funding arrives before the programme runs, not as reimbursement after. This means institutions are never out of pocket at any point during the project.

What happens on the ground

A well-run Erasmus+ study visit is not a school trip in the conventional sense. The activities need to connect to stated learning objectives, participants need to produce some kind of reflective output (journals, presentations, reports), and the hosting institution needs to be genuinely involved rather than just providing a venue.

In practice this means your students might spend mornings at a partner school in Spain working on joint projects with local pupils, afternoons at relevant cultural or professional sites, and evenings in supervised accommodation. The structure matters because it is what you report on afterwards, and reporting quality directly affects your chances on future applications.

For work placements, the participant is in a real workplace, doing real work, supervised by a professional in their field. A student aspiring to work in retail who spends eight weeks in a UK business as part of an Erasmus+ inbound placement is gaining something qualitatively different from a week’s work experience arranged by their school. IBD has coordinated hundreds of such placements across sectors including hospitality, healthcare, engineering, retail and education.

Getting started

The November 2026 application window gives institutions roughly five months to scope a project, identify a partner, and prepare an application. That is enough time if you start now. It is not enough time if you wait until October.

The first step is deciding what you want to achieve. Which group of students? Going where? To do what? The programme type follows from the answer. A primary school wanting to explore European culture through a partner school visit is looking at a Key Action 1 study visit. An FE college wanting to place hospitality students in European restaurants is looking at a Key Action 1 work placement.

IBD Partnership Group has been delivering Erasmus+ projects since 2005 and can support UK institutions through every stage: project scoping, application development, partner identification, logistics, welfare, and final reporting. If you want to understand what Erasmus+ could look like for your institution specifically, get in touch or register for one of our upcoming free webinars.

FAQ

Q: What is Erasmus+ and how does it work?
A: Erasmus+ is the European Union’s international education programme, running since 1987. It funds study visits, work placements, job shadowing and institutional partnerships for schools, colleges, universities and youth organisations. Institutions apply for a grant, receive funding in advance, and run the programme at no cost to participants.

Q: Who can apply for Erasmus+ in the UK?
A: From January 2027, eligible UK institutions include primary and secondary schools, further education colleges, higher education institutions, vocational training providers, youth organisations, sports clubs and adult education providers.

Q: When do Erasmus+ applications open for UK schools?
A: Applications are expected to open in November 2026 for projects starting in the 2027/28 academic year. The British Council is expected to act as the UK National Agency.

Q: How much funding does Erasmus+ provide per student?
A: Funding rates vary by programme type and destination. A typical outbound study visit for UK secondary pupils runs to several hundred pounds per participant. Work placements and longer mobilities attract higher rates. Additional top-up funding is available for participants from lower-income households.

Q: What is the difference between Key Action 1 and Key Action 2?
A: Key Action 1 covers individual mobility, students and staff travelling abroad or coming to the UK. Key Action 2 covers longer-term partnerships and cooperation projects between institutions in different countries. Most schools start with Key Action 1.

Q: Do students have to pay anything towards an Erasmus+ project?
A: No. Erasmus+ grants cover travel, accommodation and subsistence. Participants and their families pay nothing. This is one of the programme’s most significant features for schools serving disadvantaged communities.