How to plan your first Erasmus+ teacher training in Spain

Planning your first Erasmus+ teacher training in Spain takes four steps: confirm your school’s eligibility, choose a course that matches your Erasmus+ project goals, prepare the documentation, and book the logistics. This checklist walks through each one, with the deadlines that matter and the traps that catch first-timers.

The short version for the impatient: your school applies for the grant (not you personally), the main deadline is 19 February, and the receiving organisation should hand you most of the paperwork. Everything else is detail, and the details are below. Our Erasmus+ courses for teachers page carries the courses this checklist leads to.

Step 1: Is your school eligible for Erasmus+?

Almost certainly yes, and that surprises people. Schools providing general education at pre-primary, primary or secondary level are eligible applicants, whether general, technical or vocational.¹ Teachers of any subject can travel, along with school leaders and non-teaching staff. You do not need to be a language teacher and you do not need prior international experience.

The real eligibility question is which route your school takes. A school with an Erasmus+ accreditation sends teachers under its annual KA-121 grant. A school without one applies for a short-term KA-122 project, which the programme guide recommends for first-timers.¹ Applications go to your national agency, and the main annual round closes on 19 February at midday Brussels time.¹ Start the internal conversation 6 to 12 months before you want to travel: leadership signs the application, and leadership calendars are their own weather system. The full picture of routes and grant structure is in How does Erasmus+ funding work?

Step 2: Which course fits your Erasmus+ project?

The application will ask how the training serves your school’s needs, so pick the course from the school development plan, not from the brochure. A school pushing bilingual teaching wants CLIL training. A school with newly arrived pupils wants multilingual classroom strategies. A school renewing its English provision wants language development for teachers, and a school that mostly wants to see how others do it wants job shadowing.

Those four are exactly the structured courses we run for teachers, each Monday to Friday with certification. But the matching logic holds wherever you train: a course that maps to a documented school need writes half your application for you, and a course that does not will read like what it is.

Step 3: What documentation do you need?

Two piles, and the receiving organisation owes you the first one. Before you apply, it should supply a course description, a daily programme, and an invitation letter; for the mobility itself you agree a learning agreement, and after completion you receive certificates including the Europass Mobility document, recognised across the EU.² At EUTA this pack is standard for every course booking.

The second pile is the school’s: the application itself, built on your development plan, plus the internal approvals. Collect the provider documents before you start writing, not after. An application written around real course details is faster to draft and easier to defend, and chasing a provider for paperwork in deadline week tells you something you would rather learn earlier.

Step 4: What happens when you arrive in Benalmádena?

The logistics stop being your problem. We meet arrivals with airport transfers from Málaga, accommodation is arranged on campus or at the nearby Flatotel International, and courses run in small groups of up to 12 so nobody spends the week hiding behind a stronger speaker.

Around the course sits the Costa del Sol in working order: the beach a short walk away, cultural excursions in the programme, and enough sun in most months to remind you why teachers keep choosing Spain for this. You are there to work, and the setting does its part between sessions.

Your planning checklist

Six to twelve months out: raise it with school leadership, confirm the route (KA-122 or existing accreditation), and note your national agency’s deadline, 19 February for the main round.

Three to six months out: choose the course against the development plan, request the document pack from the receiving organisation, and submit the application if the deadline falls in this window.

One to three months out: on approval, confirm dates and participants, sign the learning agreement, book travel.

The final month: collect travel details, brief the participants, and decide before departure how the training will be shared with colleagues afterwards, because that question is on the final report.

After the week: certificates in hand, file the Europass documents, deliver the internal share-back, and note what you would change. First projects are rarely the last.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Erasmus+ programme for teachers?

It is the EU programme strand that funds teachers’ professional development abroad, structured courses and job shadowing, through a grant held by the school. Teachers travel as participants in the school’s project.

How far in advance should a school plan an Erasmus+ course?

Start 6 to 12 months before travel. The grant application, course choice and school approval all sit upstream of booking, and the main application deadline falls on 19 February each year.

Who applies for the funding, the teacher or the school?

The school applies through its national agency; teachers travel under the school’s KA-122 project or KA-121 accreditation. There is no individual application route for teacher training courses.

What documents does an Erasmus+ course provider supply?

A course description, a daily programme, an invitation letter, a learning agreement to sign before travel, and completion certificates including the Europass Mobility document. If a provider cannot show you this pack before you apply, keep looking; our Erasmus+ courses for teachers all come with it.

Viktor Nyitray has spent more than 15 years managing international study programmes, from Erasmus+ mobility projects to national student subsidy schemes. He has helped thousands of students find the right course, and helped schools secure over €3 million in programme funding along the way.

1. European Commission, Erasmus+ Programme Guide: Mobility for pupils and staff in school education ↩
2. European Commission: Erasmus+ quality standards for mobility projects ↩