What is the Erasmus+ Program?  

Within the framework of the Erasmus+ Program, Spanish schools can participate alongside other European schools in Strategic Association projects in the field of school education (KA2).

A Strategic Association is a cooperation network that brings together organizations from different countries that want to work together to achieve common objectives and in which one of the institutions acts as coordinator and the rest as partners. The projects can have different magnitudes and scopes, according to the needs and objectives of the requesting institutions.

Thematically, they can cover a wide range of issues important to scholastic education such as social inclusion, language learning, or reducing early disenrollment and dropout rates. Strategic Partnerships aim to support the development, transfer, or implementation of innovative practices and the implementation of joint initiatives to promote cooperation, peer learning, and exchange of experiences at the European level.

Depending on their objectives and composition, Strategic Partnership projects in the field of scholastic education can be of two types:

• General strategic school partnerships (KA201), in which, in addition to schools, other institutions can participate, such as regional and local authorities, centers for teacher training and educational innovation, universities, research centers, unions, libraries, or museums. Among these types of associations’ objectives can be the exchange of good practices or the development of innovative ideas or products.
• School exchange associations (KA229), in which only schools that have such consideration according to the regulations of each country can participate. These associations aim to strengthen the European dimension in the school environment, to promote transnational cooperation, and thus to encourage the exchange of good practices between schools. Furthermore, in line with the Paris Declaration of March 2015, through this type of project, the values of freedom, inclusion, tolerance and non-discrimination are promoted.

The Erasmus+ Project that we are going to develop at Ana María Matute Secondary School during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years is of type KA 229, that is, a School Exchange Association. The title of our project is Developing Soft Skills Towards European Citizenship.

Who manages and promotes the Erasmus Projects?

The Erasmus+ Projects within the Erasmus+ Program are managed and promoted by SEPIE, that is, the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education.

SEPIE is the National Agency for the management, dissemination, promotion, and impact studies of the new Erasmus+ program in the field of education and training (2014-2020) and of the Lifelong Learning Program (LLP) 2007-2013. In addition, it coordinates and participates in national and international projects.

Erasmus+ went into effect on January 1st, 2014 with the aim of increasing skills and employability, as well as supporting education, training, youth and sport systems.

Erasmus+ brings together all current European Union programs in these areas and aims to support European and national policies in all areas of education and training through the added value of internationalization and to offer greater opportunities for European mobility and cooperation to thousands of institutions and individuals in our country.

SEPIE's mission is to carry out the coordinated management of the decentralized actions of the new Erasmus+ program, in the field of education and training, including its budgetary management, as well as its dissemination among the potential beneficiaries, and the efficient and transparent management of the European funds. The Spanish National Agency (SEPIE) is in charge of sounding the call for program applications, of providing technical assistance and advice to potential beneficiaries, and of carrying out the appropriate follow-up so that the planned actions achieve their results.