University College Plymouth St Mark & St John

ERASMUS Work Programme

Doing a work placement is a great way to impress future employers. It will give you excellent first-hand experience of the working world. For placements, you can go abroad to companies, research or training centres or any organisation including higher education institutions. If you are undertaking a work placement in Europe as part of your UCP Marjon degree programme, it may be possible to apply for funding through the Erasmus programme. Under the ERASMUS scheme, students can undertake Work Placements in any of the member states of the EU. For a general overview of the Work Placements Scheme, please view the British Council’s Work Placements Guide.

To be eligible for an Erasmus grant your work placement must be related to the course you are studying, be for a minimum of 3 months and be authorised by your department. All students are required to complete an Erasmus Training Programme form which needs to be signed by the department, the employer and the student. Please note that the International Office can not find work placements and students are required to discuss possibilities with their departmental Work Placement Co-ordinator.

Eligibility
To be eligible for Erasmus funding, placements must meet the following criteria:

• last for a minimum of three months (and a maximum of 12)
• take place during the period 1 June 2011 and 31 October 2012. All mobility must commence before 30 June 2012.
• take place within Europe
• be recognised as part of your UCP Marjon degree programme
• British Council English Language Assistants (ELAs) are eligible for Erasmus funding. At present, however, Comenius Assistants (CAs) are not.

Finding a placement
It is usually the student’s responsibility to find a placement.

The International Office is not able, at present, to assist in finding or organising work placements.

The following types of organisations are not eligible as host organisations:

• European institutions (such as the European Commission) which have a paid traineeship scheme
• organisations managing EU programmes (such as National Agencies), in order to avoid possible conflict of interests and/or dual funding
• national diplomatic representation (ie. embassy/consulate) of the student in the host country.

Applying for an Erasmus grant
If your placement meets the eligibility criteria above, the first thing to do is to complete a Training Agreement and Student Mobility Agreement.

The training agreement has to be signed by you, your prospective employer, and your Director of Studies or similar at UCP Marjon. You will not be able to complete this until you have secured a placement, have received your job description, and know your start and end dates.

The Student Mobility Agreement has to be signed and completed by you.

• Erasmus training agreement (will be available soon)
• Student mobility agreement (will be available soon)
• On arrival on placement, you must complete and returned a Certificate of Arrival, signed by your employer. You should return this as soon as possible after your arrival as proof that you have begun your placement. (will be available soon)

Certificate of arrival
All students in receipt of an Erasmus grant must return a Student Transcript (to be completed by the employer) and a Student Report (to be completed by you) to the International Office, no later than 1 month after completing their placement.

• Student transcript (will be available soon)
• Student report (will be available soon)