EARLALL attends information session on the EU-Wales mobility scheme “Taith”
25/10/2022
On the 25 October 2022 in the European Parliament, the Welsh Minister of Education, Jeremy Miles and the Executive Director of Taith, Susana Galván, hosted an information session on Taith. Taith is Wales’ new international mobility funding program, with an emphasis on opportunities for learners and educators to travel to and from Wales.
During the opening remarks, the Austrian MEP Hannes Heide emphasised the importance of placing education and youth exchanges at the heart of EU-Wales relations. These words were followed by an introduction to the concept of Taith by Welsh Minister of Education, Jeremy Miles. He highlighted that the goal of Taith is to be “as inclusive as possible“, through ensuring that underrepresented groups and organisations are those who benefit from the funding. He also explained the high importance of reciprocity for the programme: concretely, 30% every grant that is provided to a Welsh party can be used to fund inward mobility of the international partners to Wales.
Jeremy Miles also outlined some of the issues that Taith faces only 9 months after its inception. One issue yet to be resolved is the te lack of clarity on free movement of international partners to Wales post-Brexit, particularly for apprenticeships and vocational training. However, he concluded that the opportunities for Wales include the small country size and the collaborative approach among many sectors and a willingness to engage in European mobility schemes.
Finally, Susana Galván, Executive Director of Taith, outlined the key aspects of Taith and how it would work for international partners seeking to engage in Funding for Youth (Pathway 1) or Strategic and Partnership mobility (Pathway 2) of the Taith programme:
- Currently Pathway 1 is closed, having funded 6300 mobilities across 95 countries.
- Pathway 2 (Strategic and Partnerships) is open until the 1 December 2022.
- Currently, only Welsh institutions can apply for funding, on behalf of a partnership between a Welsh institution and an international one.
- The Taith team are looking ahead to see how they could facilitate connection-building with Welsh organisations and international ones in the future.
- You can apply for Funding on the Taith website
- The funding is open across a wide scope of sectors: Formal and non-formal education, VET, FE, ALE, Higher Education and Youth Mobility.
Further information on the conditions of Pathway 2 was shared with EARLALL during a bilateral discussion and is available here!
