Funding for teachers

Am I eligible for Erasmus+?

To get the funding:

• you must be living in a European Union country or in any of the following: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey or the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
• you must work for a school, college or educational institute; in some countries private schools can also apply.
• the training course you choose should fit into certain educational and logistical criteria: all of Bell’s teacher development courses are valid
• funding is available for courses starting from 01 June 2019; if your course with us starts before you receive funds these can be backdated by your institute.
• your institute must complete their application and submit a Development Plan. Please let us know that you intend to participate in one of our courses as part of your Development Plan when you submit your funding application. This way we can ensure that we reserve your place for free until you receive your funding outcome. Of course you can register for our courses even if you don’t apply for funding or if the funding application is unsuccessful!
• Application forms for your country are available from your national agency.

What should you do next?

• Find out who the funding co-ordinator is at your school or institute and show them this step-by-step guide.
• You can also look at the official Erasmus+ programme guide
• The co-ordinator must register your school or organisation on the Education Portal to apply for funding. The school will need a log in and password. 
• To register visit the European Commission's Education Portal.
• Once your institution has registered, it will be given a PIC number (Personal Identification Code) which is required when applying for funding.
• Discuss the Institute’s Development Plan with your head teacher and ask for Bell courses to be included as part of the plan.
• While these processes are going ahead, choose an appropriate professional development course. Please ask your institution to book a provisional place for you to avoid disappointment using the Bell registration form. You will not incur any costs if you book a provisional place.
• Once your school has a PIC number they need to submit an Erasmus+ application form through their national agency.

What do I do when the funding decisions are made?

• Once you hear about the funding decision your school should let us know immediately if you will attend the course or not.
• If you can’t attend you always have the option of funding yourself and attending anyway. You will need to complete a registration form.
• If your school or institute has extra funding and wishes to send additional participants just contact us directly for availability.

Contact us if you have any other questions or issues and we will be happy to support you.

Current funding programmes run by the European Commission in the area of education, training, youth and sport, such as the Lifelong Learning Programme, Youth in Action and other international programmes, ceased at the end of 2013. A new programme, called Erasmus+, replaced these programmes from 1 January 2014.

The Erasmus+ programme supports activities in education, training, youth and sport in all sectors of lifelong learning (Higher Education, Further Education, adult education, schools, youth activities etc).

Visit the Erasmus+ website for more information.

Erasmus+ is open to a wide range of organisations across all sectors of education and training in the EU member and EFTA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). Any public or private organisation actively involved in these areas will be able to apply for funding through the programme. Funding for individuals is available, but any funding applications have to be made through your institution. Funding is also possible for closed groups sent by institutions. Please note that Switzerland no longer fully participates in Erasmus+.

Only organisations are able to apply for education and training funding under Erasmus+. Although training opportunities for individuals will still exist, individuals themselves will not be eligible to apply. Individuals should speak to their institution about applying for funding. Individuals should do this as soon as possible as the procedures take some time. Funding co-ordinators can use our step-by-step funding guide to help them through the application process.

Individuals cannot apply directly for grants and should instead contact their university, college or organisation. The institution will be able to submit a plan for one or two years, in line with the EU 2020 Education, Training, Youth and Sport Proposal requesting a number of grants for their staff.

As a first step your organisation needs to register with the European Commission’s Participant Portal and get a PIC number. Your university, college or organisation will then need to submit a funding application under Key Action 1 (Mobility of individuals in the field of education, training and youth) to your National Agency.

If the funding is awarded, the institution can then choose which courses they would like their staff to participate in. You will be able to nominate our courses and we will supply any information you require at this final stage in order for you to join us. As this process requires your institution to be involved, we suggest you ask them to begin as soon as possible.

The 2019 deadline to submit Erasmus+ funding applications to your national agency is 12 February 2019. You can also check the Eramus+ website.

If your organisation has applied for funding and you haven’t reserved your place yet please contact us as soon as possible with your details so we can hold your place on your chosen course. Please remember that you are of course more than welcome to attend our courses if you haven’t applied for funding or if the funding is not granted!

If you are waiting for the outcome of the funding application please contact the responsible person at your institution for the latest updates. Be aware that confirmation of funding may arrive quite late and possibly after the schools have closed for summer holidays. If you have not heard the outcome before your holidays you should make arrangements within your institute for a responsible person to regularly check emails.

No, if your institution is applying for funding we can hold a place for you on one of our courses until the funding application has been approved or declined. All we ask is that your institution fills in our application form for institutions so we can hold your place. We have to be informed immediately once your institution's funding has been approved or declined.

If your institute’s funding application isn’t successful and they cannot sponsor your course with us you can still join the course and decide to fund the course yourself. Simply let us know as soon as you can and we’ll inform you of the next steps.

We ask your institution to inform us of the funding application outcome as quickly as possible and confirm the details of all funded participants. However, we understand that funding will only be approved at a late stage and we aim to be as flexible as possible.

If you will only know if you can attend a course at a very late stage please ask your institution to register with us now and we will hold the provisional place on your preferred course until your funding outcome. This will not incur any fees. If you are already registered but worried about the likely date of your funding decision please just let us know and we will try to support as much as we can.

Bell’s PIC number is 947224013