European Solidarity Corps
This is the FAQ section for applicants from EU / partner countries that want to volunteer with us in Germany (Incoming).
If you are based in Germany and want to volunteer abroad (Outgoing), please refer to the FAQ section under this link.
You can find all information about how to apply for a project on the website post of the position you would like to apply for. Usually, you only need to fill the form below the post. If anything else is required, this will be clearly stated in the website post.
You do not need to send additional motivation letters, CVs or other materials to us.
If you have already done a long-term EVS or ESC (more than 2 months), you are not allowed to go for any ESC project again. If you have participated in a short-term EVS or ESC (less than 2 months), you can go on another ESC project.
You can nevertheless apply for any available Erasmus+ internship / traineeship program, no matter if you have participated on EVS/ESC programs in the past.
Some of our ESC projects are only open to applicants who are living in EU member states. This is due to funding rules or project timelines and cannot be changed. Those countries are:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
Other projects are open also to partner / neighbouring countries. Those are:
Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Russia, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine, Iceland, North Macedonia, Turkey, Liechtenstein and Norway.
In all cases – your nationality is not important. You need to be a resident of the country you are applying from (ie. Croatian nationality living in Italy = Italian participant; Indian nationality with permanent residence in Spain = Spanish participant). You are a resident of a country if your registered address is there.
Some of our projects are open to volunteers from “partner countries”. Those are:
Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Russia, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine, Iceland, North Macedonia, Turkey, Liechtenstein and Norway
Sometimes we receive hundreds of applications through the European Youth Portal in just one day. As we want to read all of them and organise a fair selection process, we sometimes have to take down the opportunity from the European Youth Portal earlier than initially planned. You can then still apply through our website by filling out the application form under the respective project post. Once the application form is not visible there anymore, the call will have been closed and you cannot apply anymore (also not through sending your documents via email).
No. Instead, please carefully fill out the website form. If we need more information, we will contact you and arrange an online call where you can tell us more about yourself.
Please fill out the application forms for all positions that you are interested in. Of course you can copy and paste the general information. But as the tasks and hosting organisations are often quite different, please specify your answers to each form so we can understand why each of the individual positions is interesting to you.
No, this is not mandatory. To apply for our volunteering projects, please fill in the form on the website post of the position you would like to apply for.
Yes, you can definitely still apply! It is more important that you are motivated to learn the language during your stay in Bremen.
No, unfortunately not. We can usually neither shorten the project by more than one month, nor start it earlier or later than indicated in the project description.
You will not receive an automatic reply to your application. We get in touch via email with all applicants about the result of the selection (positive or negative) within 7 days after the deadline. You can find the deadline under the website post of the position you applied for.
Yes. If you get selected, we can help you find an organisation in your home country that can support you as your sending organisation.
Visa costs / residence permit costs are usually reimbursed. Together with you and your sending organisation, we can decide which type of visa or residence permit to apply for and gather the necessary documents.
You will receive an email with the result (positive or negative) of the 1st round of the selection within 7 days after the application deadline. The deadline is stated in the website post above the application form.
If the selection was positive, you will be invited for an online call with the hosting organisation (2nd round of selection).
Youth Exchanges, Training Courses, Study Visits
You must live in Germany in order to apply for our projects (i.e. Youth Exchanges, Training Courses, Study Visits) – your nationality does not matter.
No, you do not need to be fluent in English! If you want to participate in a Youth Exchange, your level of English does not matter at all.
If you want to participate in a Training Course or Study Visit, your level of English needs to be good enough so you can participate fully in all activities.
You need to pay a participation fee for Youth Exchanges, Training Courses and Study Visits. This fee varies from 20-45€, depending on the project and you can find the amount directly in the respective project description. You also need to buy your own travel insurance.
All costs for food, accommodation, activities, and also travels (up to a limit), are covered by Erasmus+ and / or other funding depending on the project.
No, but you have to be regularly active in youth work, for example by working or volunteering in an NGO, leading workshops in a student union, being a group leader in youth camps, having an active role with the scouts, being active in an informal group, or similar activities.
As a participant, you will be a member of an international group coming together to learn with and from each other. As such, you are expected to respect other cultures, be open to participate in all activities and contribute to co-creating a learning experience for you and everybody around.
For projects hosted in Germany, we have summarised the most important rules in our Statement of Participation, which you can read here. These rules have to be signed by all participants that come on our projects hosted in Germany.
Other organizations abroad may have similar rules, which they will communicate with you before the start of the project you applied for.
After the project, you need to submit your original travel tickets and boarding passes to the NGO that hosted the project and fill their reimbursement form. On all of our projects you will be assigned a project coordinator, which is a person that will guide you through the whole process.
You also need to write a report together with your national team about the project and submit it to your sending organisation in your home country.
Depending on the project, you also need to organise a ‘dissemination event’ – an event, workshop or small action in your hometown to show others what the project was about and to pass on what you have learned to other young people.
We usually choose our group leaders for youth exchanges from a pool of past participants who expressed an interest in taking on that role. If you have been a participant at least once and now want to be a youth leader, just let us know.
Our youth leaders are the ones that take responsibility for the German team during a project abroad or in Germany, and they are an important link between the participants and the hosting organisation. We have summarised the role of the group leader in this document.
Youthpass is a certificate that confirms your participation in the project, but, more importantly, it is a tool you can use to document your own learning! The first two pages of the Youthpass shows the details of the project. The following pages are filled by you with what you have learned during the project. Through clicking on a link that the project organisers will send to you, you will see a page where you can enter your learning outcomes. After you click submit, the project organisers will send you the Youthpass as a PDF. You can read more about the Youthpass here.
Sometimes our website is a bit moody and does not accept application forms. Alternatively, you can copy and paste your answers into an Email and send it to the contact person of the project, whose Email address you will see in the respective project description. Also, remember to write the name of the project you are applying for in the subject line.
While travel (up to a limit), food and accommodation costs are all covered by Erasmus+ programme, we charge an additional 50€ participation fee per person to cover all administrative work that we do for the project.
You will have to take a direct route from Germany to the place where the project is hosted and back to Germany when the project ends. Otherwise, the tickets cannot be reimbursed.
In rare cases, we can make an exception. You always have to get your travel connections approved by the project organisers before you can book them.
If you are planning to participate in a Youth Exchange, Training Course, or Study Visit, the visa costs can usually not be reimbursed. Please contact the hosting organisation to receive the necessary supporting documents, and check with your embassy if there would be enough time to organise the visa before the start of your trip.
This depends on the Erasmus+ rules that can be different depending on the host country. In Germany, you can stay up to 7 days in total before/after the project and still get your tickets from/to your home country reimbursed.
For those extra days (up to 7 all together), you would have to organise and finance your stay in the country. Before you plan extra days in the host country of the project, always check with the organisers if you are allowed to stay for extra days.
The reimbursement of travel costs usually takes 1-3 months after the project ends. The process also depends on you – collecting your tickets and boarding passes in time, sending them electronically and via registered post to the organisers, writing the team report and conducting your final workshop or final event after coming home, helps to speed up the reimbursement process. And of course, being patient helps as well.
When you participate in a Youth Exchange, Training Course or Study Visit, you need to make sure you have your European Health Card with you. If the backside of your health card is blue with the EU symbol on it, it is normally valid in all EU countries.
If the project takes place outside of the EU, you are responsible to make sure you have health insurance in that country, for example through purchasing additional travel insurance.
Please also pack your personal medication and inform the organisers of allergies and special needs before the start of the project.
Please get in touch with your sending organisation immediately – so they can unregister you and try to find a replacement. If you have already bought travel tickets, please contact your travel insurance to get a refund.