Almost 3000 Irish students have benefited from Erasmus+

2,972 Irish students have already benefited from the EU's new study abroad programme Erasmus+ over the 2013-2014 academic year, a 7 percent increase on the previous year, Mairead McGuinness MEP and Vice-President of the European Parliament has confirmed.

The Erasmus+ programme is the EU's new funding programme for education, training, youth and sport. It combines seven previous programmes into one bigger programme, funded to the value of €14.7 billion from 2014 for 7 years.

"Most Irish students favour studying abroad as a means of improving their language skills and gaining valuable life experience living in a different country, while others prefer to take up a job placement. France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden are the preferred destinations for Irish students," MEP McGuinness said.

EU-wide, a record number of people benefitted from an Erasmus grant, with 272,497 students, including more than 60,000 trainees, and 57,488 higher education staff receiving funding for studies, training, job placements and teaching or training abroad.

"Up to 50,000 Irish students could benefit from the educational scheme by 2020 by studying at one of the 4,000 participating higher educational institutions or through a work traineeship placement for up to 12 months.

"The programme also promotes intercultural diversity and understanding through experience. It is a worthwhile opportunity and can really benefit those Irish students who wish to improve their languages – a key skill for today's labour force," McGuinness added.

Erasmus+ has also provided funding opportunities for over 1,700 cooperation projects so far across the education, training and youth sectors, in order to address challenges such as early school leaving, and to better equip young people with tech and digital skills.