A youth exchange is a project funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus+ youth program.

It is an intercultural experience that can last from 6 to 21 days and involves groups of participants from different European countries.

The age of the participants must be between 13 and 30 years old, except for the group leader, for whom the only age requirement is that he or she must be over 18.

Activities during a youth exchange take place following the methods of non-formal education (learning by doing), which are different from, for example, school methods (formal education). These activities may include: discussions, field trips, hands-on workshops, team-building and intercultural activities, role-playing, and much more.

Each youth exchange has three main actors: participants (including leaders), the coordinating association, and partner associations. The coordinating association is the one hosting the project in its country, the partner associations are the ones sending groups of participants to the project. The coordinating association also selects a group of participants.

To understand better: let’s imagine a project in Spain hosted by association XX with three other partner organizations from Italy, France and Germany. Then the group of participants in this project will consist of the Spanish national group of association XX + the group of the Italian association YY + the group of the French association ZZ and the group of the German association WW.