Brussels, 22/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - Young graduates who have obtained skills and experience abroad through the Erasmus programme have much better opportunities and enhanced skills than students who have not been mobile, when they are looking for jobs and senior posts in their countries of origin or abroad. They are also more likely to want to set up their own businesses and have a greater willingness to live abroad or share their lives with someone of a different nationality.
These are the main conclusions from a new study by a panel of independent experts carried out in 34 European countries and presented on Monday 22 September by the European Commissioner for Culture, Education, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou. The study seeks to assess the impact of the student and teacher exchange programme, Erasmus, on the ability to obtain work, student skills and their willingness to live and work abroad.
With regard to graduate employability, the study reveals that: - more than 85% of Erasmus students will study or train abroad in an effort to improve their employability abroad (one out of three trainees will be offered a job in the host company), other goals are also pursued such as personal development in a different environment or improving their linguistic or transversal skills (see below); - the probability of them becoming long-term unemployed is reduced by half as for non-mobile students and their unemployment rate five years after obtaining their degrees is 23% less than for their fellow students who chose to study in their home countries. According to the study, their period spent abroad provides them with job-finding skills that are 70% higher than those of all the other students, and improve their employability compared to the latter by 42%. It appears that amongst employers: - 92% are seeking transversal skills amongst jobseekers (curiosity, problem solving abilities, tolerance, open-mindedness, self- confidence) which are very much enhanced through the Erasmus programme; - 64% of them see international experience as an important advantage for recruitment purposes; - 64% believe that international experience paves the way to taking on more responsibility at work.
According to the study, Erasmus develops a spirit of enterprise: almost one out of ten Erasmus students who has spent a traineeship or educational period abroad sets up his own business and three out of four of them intend to do so.
The study also illustrate that 40% of former Erasmus students, as opposed to just 23% of non-Erasmus students set up businesses abroad; 93% of them intend to do so (as opposed to 73%); and 33% (compared to 13%) live with a person of different nationality - 27% of these cases having begun during a period spent abroad.
Vassiliou was eager for the same positive result to be repeated in the new Erasmus+ programme, which has a budget of €14.2 billion for 2014-2020. This new programme is expected to provide opportunities to spend time abroad for approximately 4 million people (2 million higher education students, 650,000 lower and professional school students, 800,000 teachers and trainers, 500,000 young people in voluntary services) as part of the exchanges and partnerships with non-European countries. The programme also provides loans to more than 200,000 students on Masters courses. (FG)