Learners with special needs

Our Platform is about making the mobility programs accessible to all and to create learning opportunities that are meaningful to all learners to ensure their participation.

A special attention is paid to the learners with educational difficulties. Inclusive education is a basic concept in all partner countries. In many VET schools and colleges, there are specially designed professional curricula for students with special needs. In planning and implementing mobility programs, this particular group is very often not considered as a priority. Therefore inclusion is one of the key issues of this project: how to adapt the Platform also to learners with health problems and educational difficulties, based on the principles: (1) teaching and assessment methodologies in inclusive learning; (2) the structuring of the content of the study:  adapting learning assignments, simplifying texts and visualizing content; (3) teacher/trainer self-analysis including competences for teaching  and supervising practice of the learners with special educational needs; (4) collecting feedback from learners, drawing up a personal development plan.

Read: Erasmus+ Mobility of Students with Disability

It is also important to highlight that additional funding is available for mobility of participants with physical, mental or health-related conditions via the Erasmus+ special needs support. Erasmus+ grants may therefore be higher than the regular study, traineeship or staff grants to offset the specific difficulties faced by the participant (such as adapted accommodation, travel assistance, medical attendance, supportive equipment, adaption of learning material, an accompanying person for students and staff with disabilities). Source: Erasmus+ Students and staff with physical, mental or health-related conditions (2020).

We can make VET mobility as an inclusion instrument:

• by tackling access barriers (e.g. not only performance-based selection)
• by promoting language programmes before mobility
• language skills should be a result instead of a barrier to VET mobilities
• by introducing mobility programmes that address disadvantaged groups, or by reinforcing and
• enlarging existing good practice programmes such as IdA (integration through exchange2, for
• disadvantaged groups)
• by promoting job opportunities upon return; mobile apprentices are a valuable labour force for
• the future Europe.

Source: Mapping Mobility – Pathways, Institutions and Structural Effects of Youth Mobility (2018).