Erasmus+ in 2027: What the Annual Work Programme Sets Out for Schools, VET and Adult Education

On 15 October 2026 the European Commission adopted the Erasmus+ annual work programme for 2027. It is the document that turns the programme’s rules into a year’s plan: how much money goes to each action, and what the year’s priorities are. The 2027 call for proposals and the 2027 Programme Guide follow from it.

2027 is also the last year of the 2021–2027 programme. Here is what the work programme says for schools, vocational education and training (VET) and adult education.

The budget at a glance

The work programme sets a maximum EU contribution of €6.21 billion for 2027. By field:

• Education and training: €5.45 billion
• Youth: €644.5 million
• Sport: €121.3 million

Most of the education and training money goes to mobility (Key Action 1): €3.82 billion. Within that, the indicative amounts are:

For cooperation partnerships (Key Action 2), school education has €76.9 million plus €22.5 million for small-scale partnerships, and adult education has €60.8 million plus €22.5 million for small-scale partnerships.

These figures are indicative. They are shared out between countries through the national agencies, so the amount available to schools in your country depends on your national agency’s budget, not on these totals.

What staff mobility covers

The work programme lists the formats staff can use in school education:

• Job shadowing: time spent observing colleagues in a school or organisation abroad. See our job shadowing page.
• Teaching or training assignments: teaching at a partner school or organisation.
• Courses and training: structured courses abroad.

It also supports invited experts, hosting teachers and educators in training, and preparatory visits. Adult education staff can use the same formats. These are the formats schools already know from 2021–2026.

The 2027 priorities for schools

The work programme names these priorities for school education in 2027:

• Basic skills and key competences, including tackling early school leaving. School mobility is meant to support measures that speed up progress in basic skills, and schools can ask for additional support for practices that address them.
• Well-being at school.
• Supporting teachers and school leaders, with the Commission’s Teachers and Trainers Agenda announced under the Union of Skills.
• STEM and STEAM, including girls in STEM.
• The response to the war in Ukraine.

If your school is writing its next project around one of these, it helps to say so plainly and show how the mobility supports it. Courses we run on these themes include Basic Competencies in Adult Education, Social and Emotional Learning for Inclusive Schools and From STEM to STEAM.

Housing, named as a barrier

The work programme names housing as a barrier to taking part in mobility. It says the Commission is reflecting on affordable housing for mobile students, in line with the European Affordable Housing Plan of December 2025. That is a statement of intent, not a new grant. It points the same way as the Parliament’s call, in its 2028–2034 vote, for grants that reflect living and housing costs. We covered that vote in Erasmus+ 2028–2034: Parliament Votes for €47.39 Billion.

2027 runs on today’s rules

The Commission proposed the next programme, for 2028–2034, in July 2025, to apply from 1 January 2028. The work programme is clear that everything funded in 2027 is governed by the current 2021–2027 regulation. A project granted in 2027 keeps those rules even if it runs into 2028. For what the next programme might look like, see our overview, What’s Actually Being Proposed for the Next Programme.

What to check before the 2027 call

1. Wait for the 2027 Programme Guide. Deadlines, grant rates and eligibility come with the call and the Guide, not with the work programme. Our Programme Guide page points to the current edition.
2. Check your national agency. Its share of the budget and its own guidance decide what is realistic for your school.
3. Match your plan to a priority. Pick the priority your school really works on, and plan the mobility around it.
4. Check course dates against your project period. See the confirmed course dates for 2027.

We’ll add links to the 2027 call and Programme Guide when they are published.