As the lack of language skills remains one of the main barriers to the participation in European education, training and youth mobility opportunities, OLS makes language support accessible in a flexible and easy way. It also contributes to a specific objective of the Erasmus+ programme, which is to promote language learning and linguistic diversity.
Access
If you have already been selected to go abroad with the Erasmus+ or European Solidarity Corps programmes, your institution or organisation will send you a login and a password to access OLS.
For further details, please contact your sending institution or coordinating organisation, or National Agency.
Who can benefit
The OLS is currently available for participants from the following Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps fields
- higher education
- European Solidarity Corps
- Vocational Education and Training (VET)
- adult learning (including staff from all fields of Education and Training and Youth)
- schools
- youth
Available languages
OLS will be available for all European Union languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Estonian, Spanish, Finnish, French, Irish Gaelic, Croatian, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Maltese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish.
On top of this, OLS will also be available in the official languages of Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programme countries: Icelandic, Macedonian, Norwegian, Serbian and Turkish.
How it works
By taking the OLS language assessment when going abroad, Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps participants are able to determine their proficiency in the language they will use to study, work or volunteer and get access to a personalised language learning pathway.
Taking this assessment in the language of the mobility before departure is a prerequisite for higher education students going on mobility for 14 days or more, to make sure that they meet the recommended level at their receiving organisation (except for native speakers or in duly justified cases). The results of the language assessment do not prevent participants from taking part in Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes.
Participants who wish to improve their language proficiency have the opportunity to follow online language courses before and during their time abroad. Access to the language course includes a great variety of interactive and tailor-made activities. Participants can follow language courses in any of the available languages on OLS without limitation to the number of languages and study units.
In certain cases where the main language is not covered by OLS, linguistic support is provided through other means by the sending or the receiving organisation. Upon their return, participants can take a final assessment, which allows them to measure the progress made during their stay abroad.