Studying, training and voluntary activity for third-country nationals

Citation

(2003), "Studying, training and voluntary activity for third-country nationals", Education + Training, Vol. 45 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2003.00445aab.014

Studying, training and voluntary activity for third-country nationals

Studying, training and voluntary activity for third-country nationals

The European Commission has approved a proposal for a directive on entry and residence conditions for third-country nationals who wish to study or undertake vocational training or volunteering in the EU. This proposal will make it easier to host students from third countries under the future Erasmus World programme and to allow third-country nationals to take part in programmes such as Youth and Euromed Youth.

Viviane Reding, European commissioner responsible for education and training, said: "If we want to make Europe a centre of excellence when it comes to the knowledge-based economy, our universities need to be able to attract more third-country students at postgraduate level. This is one of the aspects of the Erasmus World programme proposed by the Commission. The proposal for a directive is a significant instrument which will help us to attain this objective, particularly as it also authorises student mobility between universities in different European Union countries."

The proposal is designed to favour migration for training purposes, migration which is temporary and a source of enrichment both for the hosting EU member state and for the third country of origin. It is part of the EU strategy designed to strengthen co-operation with third countries in the area of education, by providing the means needed to meet the challenge of internationalization in education. The proposal distinguishes four categories of third-country nationals – students, pupils, unpaid trainees and volunteers. The entry of students essentially concerns higher education. The entry of unpaid trainees for vocational training purposes is aimed at the acquisition of vocational skills in a private or public company or in a vocational training establishment.

The proposal for a directive includes arrangements to encourage exchanges of pupils in secondary education between EU and third countries in order to stimulate the discovery of European culture by the young people of these countries, and also arrangements for volunteers who may experience difficulty in obtaining a residence document because they are neither workers nor students and do not fall into any specific category of migrants.