Enterprises as participating organisations

The EU programme LEONARDO DA VINCI promotes European cross-border co-operation between various players such as universities and enterprises. In an effort to increase transnational mobility and improve the quality of training and education, they are involved in way of fostering skills development through transnational mobility experience. At the moment, 31 countries participate in this EU programme. The participating countries are the 25 EU member states Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, UK, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the three EFTA countries Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein and the three accession candidates Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. The programme is implemented in each participating country through National Agencies. More information on facts and figures on the EU programme see press release of the European Commission.

In Germany, the DAAD is part of the National Ageny structure responsible for mobility projects in the area of Higher education. These projects provide for students’ and graduates’ traineeship in enterprises in Europe for a period from three to twelve months. The students/graduates receive a LEONARDO DA VINCI grant to cover partly their stay abroad as well as travel costs and intercultural and linguistic preparation. As the EU grant only covers part of the trainee’s expenses, the enterprises receiving qualified trainees from abroad are generally expected to contribute to cover part of the costs as well (in kind or cash).

General minimum requirements regarding a LEONARDO placements (rights/obligations) are stipulated in the so called “LEONARDO traineeship agreements” (= Mindestklauseln, Download). In order to ensure a certain quality of the placement some helpful guidelines are summarized in the EU quality commitment (=Charta, Download).

If you are an enterprise or an institution in Europea who would like to receive Higher education students or recent graduates for traineeship from three to twelve months within a LEOARDO DA VINCI project, you can contact the DAAD. Please describe your placement offer and give a short description of the enterprise to leonardo@daad.de. It will be a pleasure to us to forward any serious request to our project coordinators in Germany.

For detailed information about participating in the programme as well as information regarding funding and eligible costs please contact the National Agency in your country.