Erasmus+ is the European Union programme for education, training, youth and sport for the period 2014‑2020. Erasmus+ offers opportunities to study, train, gain work experience, or volunteer abroad. One of its strategic objectives is to strengthen linguistic skills and support language learning.
The European Solidarity Corps is the new European Union initiative that creates opportunities for young people to volunteer or work in projects in both, their own country, and abroad. These projects benefit communities and people around Europe.
The Online Linguistic Support (OLS) has been designed to assist Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps mobility participants in improving their knowledge of the language in which they will work, study, or volunteer, before and during their stay abroad, in order to ensure a better quality of learning mobility.
As a lack of language competence remains one of the main barriers to the participation in European education, training, and youth mobility opportunities, the OLS makes linguistic support accessible in a flexible and easy way.
OLS offers online language assessments and language courses to participants in Erasmus+ mobility activities of at least two months (studies [1] / traineeships/ volunteering activities), having one of the following languages as the main language of work.
In June 2015, the service was extended to Vocational Education and Training (VET) learners participating in a mobility, and since December 2018, OLS is also available to European Solidarity Corps participants in volunteering, traineeships, or jobs.
The goal is to progressively expand the OLS system to all official EU languages by 2020. For those participants whose main mobility language is not yet available in the OLS, linguistic support will be provided either through the Organisational Support Grant (for Higher Education students) or through specific grants for linguistic support (for Erasmus+ volunteers, European Solidarity Corps participants, and VET learners).
The OLS is a unique, easily accessible online environment through which participants in the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes who meet the above criteria, can assess their knowledge of the mobility language, and follow an interactive language course at their own pace, if they wish to do so. The OLS also features additional opportunities for collaborative and peer learning, such as live coaching on a variety of topics for small groups of learners (tutoring sessions) or for broader groups (MOOCs), in addition to a moderated forum for learners to exchange and support each other during their mobility experience.
[1] Please note that Joint Master Degree students are not eligible.