About This Project

In summer 2025, eleven vocational students from Austria, aged 17 to 20, arrived in Portsmouth for a four-week Erasmus+ work placement programme organised by IBD Partnership Group. The group spent their first week on English language training at IBD’s Portsmouth training centre before moving into three weeks of work placements with local employers, covering trades, retail, hairdressing, residential care, sports community work, engineering, and library and advice services.

IBD arranged the full programme, including the English language preparation, employer matching, host family accommodation and ongoing support throughout the four weeks. The language week was led by Catherine, IBD’s English tutor in Portsmouth, who built the group’s confidence through interactive discussions and language activities before anyone set foot in a workplace.

By the end of the four weeks, the group had moved from a classroom in Portsmouth into working roles across the city, with each student receiving a certificate marking the completion of both the language training and the placement programme.

What the Group Did

The first week set the tone for what followed. Alongside classroom sessions with Catherine, the group visited the WW1 Museum in Portsmouth, where they worked with a museum tour guide to practise English in a real setting, turning a language lesson into a history lesson as well.

From the second week, each student moved into a placement with real day-to-day responsibilities rather than observation-only roles. One student worked alongside tradespeople on plumbing call-outs and basic repairs, while another supported a retail business with stock and customer-facing tasks. A third spent the placement in a hairdressing salon, and another worked with a Portsmouth football club’s community outreach team, helping run sessions for local groups. A fifth placement was based in a charity retail shop, sorting donations and serving customers.

Three students were placed together in a residential care home, with one working as a baker in the kitchen while the other two supported daily activities and care routines for residents. Two more joined an engineering workshop, getting hands-on experience with UK manufacturing processes. The remaining student split their placement between a library and a high street retail store, with a spell at a local advice service in between, a single placement that took in three quite different working environments.

Living with host families across Portsmouth for the full four weeks gave the group daily exposure to English outside work, with evenings and weekends adding another layer to the language learning that had started in the classroom with Catherine.

By the final week, the language gains from the first week were showing in how the group handled their placements, fielding questions, following instructions and chatting with colleagues in English without stopping to translate first. The programme ended with a certificate ceremony in Portsmouth, four weeks after the group had walked into a classroom barely knowing the city.

About IBD Partnership Group

IBD Partnership Group has been organising Erasmus+ and international work placements for European students in the UK since 2005, welcoming more than 60,000 participants from across Europe. We handle everything from employer matching and host family accommodation to welfare support, airport transfers and all Erasmus+ documentation.

If you are a school, VET college or sending organisation looking to place students in the UK from 2027 when Erasmus+ reopens to UK destinations, contact us today.