Dear Erasmus+ beneficiaries in the youth sector,
We would like to address you regarding the statement issued by the National Association of Youth Workers (NAPOR) and National Youth Council of Serbia (KOMS) which we received on 8 July 2022.
Namely, since the Foundation Tempus became responsible for implementing decentralised parts of the Erasmus+ programme also in the field of youth, it has endeavoured to acknowledge all identified needs of the youth sector and to provide adequate support to those who work with and for the youth to participate in the calls for project proposals.
Due to the needs of the organisation and expanded scope of the Erasmus+ programme, the Foundation Tempus decided to change the internal organisational structure and to reorganise the work of the Youth Unit and the Information and Mobility Unit by merging them into the Youth, Information and Sport Unit. The Youth, Information and Sport Unit will continue to work and to provide support to the Erasmus+ programme beneficiaries as it has done so far, only in an extended composition and by including projects in the field of sport. Moreover, the capacity of the Youth Unit, where the number of colleagues has not changed in the last four years, will be increased as another Project Officer in the field of Youth and Sport will join them.
Hereafter you can find the information about our employees who currently provide support to the youth sector:
- Two employees provide support only to those who participate in the calls and they follow projects which includes all activities determined by the European Commission rules.
- An employee who spends a half of their working time conducting the activities of Eurodesk – a European Commission network established to provide better support to youth regarding international mobility;
- An employee who is in charge of implementing DiscoverEU initiative;
- Employees who are in charge of contracting, OID number validation, processing financial reports of beneficiaries. These employees do this work for all components of the Erasmus+ programme for which the Foundation Tempus is responsible.
- Employees who are in charge of the technical organisation of events and organise all events of the Foundation Tempus;
- Employees who are in charge of the promotion of the Erasmus+ programme and those who are providing general information to the beneficiaries.
The European Commission, which oversees the implementation of the Erasmus+ programme in Serbia and which so far has not had any objection to the work of the Foundation Tempus as an organisation in charge of the Erasmus+ programme in Serbia, is familiar with the internal organisation of the Foundation Tempus.
The number of project officers in the Foundation Tempus is based on the work needs and the available funds. Additionally, the distribution of workload to employees has to be equitable. In that respect, the colleagues who work with the youth are responsible for following the smallest number of projects per person when compared to the colleagues from other, similar organisational units of the Foundation Tempus.
The amount of funds within the Erasmus+ programme allocated to the youth component of the programme is determined by the European Commission and these funds have to be awarded in the form of a grant. We would like to point out that the evaluation of all received project applications is conducted by external evaluators among which there are many foreign youth workers and experts in the field.
We would like to invite the representatives of the National Association of Youth Workers (NAPOR) and National Youth Council of Serbia (KOMS), if they consider that any of the activities that have been conducted so far was not good enough or think the youth sector should receive more support regarding the implementation of the Erasmus+ programme, to send us concrete suggestions and observations. We would also like to invite Erasmus+ beneficiaries in the youth sector who had an opportunity to cooperate with the Foundation Tempus to inform us if they were dissatisfied with any of the services provided: the quality of the information provided during the info days and counselling sessions, resolving dilemmas regarding the implementation of the projects and the processing of their final report.
We believe that all the efforts the Foundation Tempus has invested and all the successes that we have achieved together with the representatives of the youth sector will contribute to more outstanding results in the future.
Yours sincerely,
Foundation Tempus
