STORY

Strengthening the Training Opportunities for InteRnational Youth

Aims

• Improve the accessibility and quality of international traineeships.
• Increase the awareness regarding the existence of such opportunities for youth.

About

This EU-funded project investigates the issues of accessibility, quality and recognition for both study and traineeship mobility programmes through a research study.

Therefore, STORY main goals/objectives are related to

• quality of learning mobility with focus on ERASMUS study mobility
• quality of placements and internships including ERASMUS placements and Leonardo Da Vinci.

In order to achieve these goals the STORY project:

• Analyses the impact and quality of training mobility programmes and survey obstacles and expectations observed by the main actors involved in training mobility (Students, HEIs, NAs and Hosting Companies/Organisations) .
• Disseminates different supporting information, create awareness and provide guidance and information via the project website.

STORY also contributes with an online platform ErasmusIntern.org that aims at bringing together training providers and individuals seeking a training opportunity abroad.

STORY is an extended version of the successful PRIME project.  

Key Findings

Students

• 95% of students receive information about the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) or other credit systems and 82% receive it prior to the exchange period.
• 64% of all responding students have already received recognition for their traineeship.

Higher Education Institutions

• Around 93% of all institutions claim that they usually grant full recognition of all their students’ traineeships

National Agencies

• The main issues with recognition occur because the exact course catalogue and timetable of the receiving institution are not available when preparing the Learning Agreement prior to an exchange.
• National Agencies say they have tools and procedures in place to handle the problems with recognition at HEIs. They, however, say that such cases are generally rare.

Receiving Companies/Organizations

• Organizations usually find their trainees when students apply on their own initiative (61%) with the help of their schools or HEIs (57%)
• 74% of the organizations say that they sign a Learning Agreement and they do it before the traineeship starts (94%)
• The final outcome of the research led to the creation of an online platform (Erasmusintern.org) which aims at enhancing students’ international opportunities on the European job market. A Final Conference presenting the project activities and results was held in Brussels in September 2014.