Comparative Research Report 2014-2020

Effects and Outcomes of the Erasmus+ Youth in Action Programme (RAY MON)

NEW!

Following the comparative data report, which was published in November 2021, we proudly present the comparative research report (transnational analysis) which explores the effects and outcomes of the Erasmus+ Youth in Action Programme for the period 2014-2020.

The comparative research report compares the three RAY monitoring survey cycles (2015/2016, 2017/2018, 2019/2020) between 2014 and 2020 and analyses the development of Erasmus+ Youth in Action for the whole programme period (across different effects: e.g. on competence development, participation and citizenship, learning organisations and communities, inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities, as well as the implementation of the programme).

The multilingual online surveys (in 2019/2020 available in 29 languages) were conducted between October 2015 and June 2020 with project participants and project teams involved in Erasmus+ Youth in Action projects: Youth Exchanges (Key Action 1), European Voluntary Service (Key Action 1), Youth Dialogue – meetings between young people and decision-makers in the field of youth (Key Action 3) and Mobility of Youth Workers (Key Action 1). Additionally, participants of international Transnational Cooperation Activities of the E+/YiA National Agencies were addressed.

In the comparative analysis of all three survey cycles, a total of 53.144 project participants and a total of 10.789 project leaders were included (following a harmonisation of the applied data cleaning criteria across all three cycles).

The study was implemented in cooperation with all our 35 RAY partner countries (between 2014-2020). Further information on our network can be found HERE.

Some key findings & conclusions

Competence development

The development of key competences and skills is very high for project participants project leaders alike.
Project leaders are slightly more affirmative and self-confident about the improvement of their competences than project participants.
Project leaders assess the learning outcomes/development of key competences of project participants slightly higher than the responding project participants themselves.

Participation & active citizenship

96% of responding project participants improved their ability to get along with people who have a different cultural background, and 90% their ability to achieve something in the interest of the community.
37% of respondents report that they actually became more active as citizens as a result of their participation in the programme, compared to their engagement before the project.
Youth workers and youth leaders report that they learned better how to foster participation of young people in the preparation and implementation of (youth) projects (between 82% and 94%).
The involvement (and therefore active participation) of participants in the preparation and implementation of the project lies by 86%.
Organisations became more open with regard to the participation of young people, the inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities and the involvement in European issues.

Learning organisations & communities

The effects of projects on organisations – and communities – are assessed to be positive by project participants and project leaders alike (the effects are less strong than the ones on the individual level – in part because they are less immediate)
The most highly rated effects (from 69% to 91%) on organisations are increased appreciation of cultural diversity, more contacts/partnerships with other countries and more networking at European level (international dimension of youth work)
Over 80 % of project leaders stated that the project was positively perceived in their local communities as well as the intercultural dimension was appreciated.

Inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities

70% of responding project leaders stated that young people with
fewer opportunities or with special needs participated in their projects
61% of responding participants reporting confirmed that they are working with young people with fewer opportunities or with special needs.
65% of responding project participants report that they are faced with at least one obstacle in society. The main obstacle, from the perspective of project participants themselves, is gaining access to work and employment (57%), followed by active participation in society and politics (34%), mobility (27%) and accessing education (23%).
There are strong differences between the self-assessment of project participants concerning obstacles they are faced with and the project leaders’ perception. Project leaders believe that next to not having enough money (64%), other major obstacles for project participants are living in a remote area (45%), social background (39%), low educational attainment (31%) and living in a deprived (sub-)urban area (30%).
88% of project leaders agree that their project contributed to supporting the inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities or special needs in the Erasmus+ Youth in Action Programme (some aspects need to be researched further).

Respondent profiles & trajectories of project participants and project leaders

60% of project participants and 81% of project leaders have a tertiary degree (university, polytechnic or post-secondary/tertiary level education).
14% of responding project participants indicated that they belong to a cultural, ethnic, religious or linguistic minority, whereas 19% of responding project leaders define themselves as belonging to a minority.
33% of responding project participants had never participated in a similar project before & 67% had participated in a similar project before (from these, 21% indicated that they had participated once before in a similar project & 34% had participated 3-5 times in a similar project)
81% of responding project leaders had participated in a project supported by the programme before (male respondents had more frequently participated as project leaders, female respondents had more frequently participated as participants)

Implementation of the programme

Overall, project leaders are largely satisfied with the application procedure and administrative project management of projects within Erasmus+ Youth in Action.
Four aspects are seen more critically (the complexity of the application procedure, the administrative management and reporting, and connected with this, the use of online tools).
According to 92% of project leaders, Youthpass is widely used within Erasmus+ Youth projects. And 90% ‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’ that Youthpass was integrated throughout the project and its methods.
89% of project participants who have been involved in a reflection or self-assessment related to issuing a Youthpass certificate, stated that this helped raise their awareness of their development through the project.

-> Want to dive deeper into details and find out also more about the profiles and backgrounds of survey respondents?

RAY MON Comparative Research Report 2014-2020 [pdf 2MB]

RAY MON Comparative Data Report 2014-2020 [pdf 7,4MB]

(also available in the section ‘reports‘)

What is RAY Monitoring of Erasmus+ Youth (in Action) (RAY MON)?

The aim of this project is to contribute to quality assurance and quality development in the implementation of Erasmus+ Youth (formerly: in Action), to evidence-based and research-informed youth policy development and to a better understanding of learning mobility in the youth field.

Further details about the research project, its aim, research questions and design can be found HERE.