From an animal sanctuary caring for rescued farm animals and chronically ill dogs in northern Italy and a Kekri harvest festival marking the turn from light to winter in Eastern Finland, to digital-skills training for internally displaced youth near Tbilisi in Georgia, community development in the slums of Kampala, an arts residency touring experiential museums across Romania, education and permaculture in the villages of Zanzibar, human rights documentation at the UN's OHCHR in Geneva, an OECD social media officer role in Paris, teaching Italian at a technological institute in Durango, Mexico, development finance and carbon markets at the Global Green Growth Institute in Seoul, and a €5,000 EUSALP pitch contest for the young people of the Alps — this batch of 30 opportunities spans 25 countries across five continents. Twenty fully funded ESC volunteering placements, six paid internships and positions, two Erasmus+ activities and two funded youth forums and contests.
Every ESC placement is fully funded — flight, accommodation, food, monthly pocket money and insurance. The internships and positions are paid or stipend-supported, the Erasmus+ activities cover travel and stay (or are free and online), and the two youth forums cover participation. A large group of deadlines falls between 7 and 19 July 2026.
What's in this batch:
20 ESC Volunteering Placements · 6 Internships & Positions · 2 Erasmus+ Activities · 2 Youth Forums & Contests · 25 Countries
🌱 ESC Volunteering Opportunities
🇮🇹 Italy — Animal Sanctuary and Dog Shelter Care 🐷
📅 Deadline: 4 July 2026
Live and work at an animal welfare project giving a second chance to rescued farm animals and dogs living with chronic health issues. Get hands-on with daily care, hygiene and long walks, learn each animal's story and needs, and help share the project through social media in a remote, nature-close setting. Open to applicants from 29 countries across Europe — the placement on this list with the most wagging tails.
🇮🇹 Italy — Supporting Children at a Youth Shelter and Education Centres 🤝
📅 Deadline: 7 July 2026
Support a long-running cooperative caring for children and teenagers, splitting your week between a shelter for young people removed from challenging family situations and daytime educational centres. Help run workshops, sports, games and socialisation, support logistics, and contribute to an environment of safety, empowerment and teamwork. Open to applicants from 29 countries across Europe — steady, protective work in a child's hardest chapter.
🇳🇱 Netherlands — Youth Work and Activities at a Youth Centre ⚽
📅 Deadline: 7 July 2026
Get stuck into daily life at a lively youth centre, designing games and new programmes alongside a team of professionals and international volunteers. Run school lunch services with fun activities like football, dodgeball and handcrafts, then help deliver afternoon playing hours, social projects and workshops in a safe, welcoming space. Open to applicants from 26 countries across Europe — high-energy days with a young crowd who'll remember you.
📋 New to ESC volunteering? Everything you need to know — how it works, who can apply, what costs are covered — is in one place. Read the complete guide →
🇸🇰 Slovakia — Long-Term Youth Work in a Catholic Community ⛪
📅 Deadline: 9 July 2026
Join a Christian Catholic youth organisation for 6 to 12 months, sharing values with young people and working with teenagers. Support the organisation's activities, get creative making posters and videos, and help bring the community's youth work to life in a welcoming, faith-based environment. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — a longer placement to really put down roots in a community.
🇬🇪 Georgia — Digital Skills Training for Displaced Youth 💻
📅 Deadline: 12 July 2026
Empower internally displaced young people by building their digital skills and employability in a settlement near Tbilisi. Design and deliver hands-on training in MS Office, cybersecurity, content creation and social media marketing, support individual and group digital projects, and encourage peer-to-peer learning across the community. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — skills that reopen doors for young people who lost them.
🇷🇸 Serbia — Project Assistant for Social Inclusion 📋
📅 Deadline: 12 July 2026
Support projects promoting social inclusion and dignity for vulnerable groups, including homeless people, ethnic minorities and care leavers. Assist the project manager with communication and deliverables, handle administrative tasks, prepare meetings and workshops, support proposal writing and research, and join field visits. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — a behind-the-scenes look at how inclusion projects really run.
🇺🇬 Uganda — Community Development in Slum Communities 🌍
📅 Deadline: 12 July 2026
Support a youth-led charity working with marginalised slum dwellers in Kampala, focusing on orphans and vulnerable children and youth. Run sanitation and hygiene awareness campaigns, provide after-school support, organise sports and arts, help with fundraising, train staff in social media, and document success stories on home and school visits. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — frontline grassroots work where the need is greatest.
✍️ Last-minute motivation letter? Here's how to write one that actually gets read — and remembered. Read the guide →
🇷🇸 Serbia — Youth Skills and Career Development 🌟
📅 Deadline: 12 July 2026
Help young people from vulnerable communities build the skills and confidence for their future. Offer basic career mentoring, support CV writing and interview preparation, map local education and job opportunities, and lead informal workshops on career orientation and soft skills. No counselling background needed, just enthusiasm and patience. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — you become the mentor you'd have wanted at their age.
🇷🇴 Romania — Arts Residency for Young Artists 🖌️
📅 Deadline: 13 July 2026
If art is your strongest passion, step into a residency where your work becomes part of experiential museums for a whole town. Join art caravans across Romania, design creative installations alongside other young artists, organise festivals and events, and explore new ways to connect with audiences, building a strong portfolio along the way. Open to applicants from 65 countries worldwide — a genuine artistic residency, open to nearly anyone in the world.
🇬🇭 Ghana — Health and Gender Equality in the Community ⚖️
📅 Deadline: 14 July 2026
Support a community organisation in northern Ghana tackling maternal mortality, teenage pregnancy and unequal access to health and education. Help with community education, youth empowerment and advocacy to raise health awareness, promote gender equality, and strengthen inclusive participation and resilience in a region where girls face higher dropout rates. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — work that changes the odds for girls in an entire region.
💡 What do organisations actually look for in an ESC volunteer? Skills, values, attitude — what makes a strong profile. Read the guide →
🇪🇸 Spain — Youth Mobility, Participation and Tech Culture 📱
📅 Deadline: 14 July 2026
Join the youth department of a town near Madrid, improving young people's lives through information, participation and non-formal education. Run English conversation workshops, support youth information at the international programmes office, contribute to a local tech and communication hub, and help with leisure activities and youth participation in secondary schools. Open to residents of Spain — a broad role that touches every part of local youth life.
🇫🇮 Finland — Kekri Harvest Festival and Finnish Traditions 🔥
📅 Deadline: 19 July 2026
Celebrate Kekri, an autumn harvest festival marking the turn from light to winter darkness in Eastern Finland. Cook traditional local food, build a traditional fence, get creative with crafts, recycling and video-making, and connect across generations with schools, an elderly home and museums in a serene rural community surrounded by nature. Open to applicants from 28 countries across Europe — step straight into a centuries-old Finnish tradition.
🇫🇷 France — Supporting Intercultural Mobility Projects 🤝
📅 Deadline: 19 July 2026
Support an association that has spent two decades organising international meetings for young people with fewer mobility opportunities. Based at an intercultural and volunteering house in Marseille, you'll help run intercultural projects across the euro-mediterranean area and contribute to the house's programme. Open to residents of Germany — Marseille as your base for Mediterranean-wide exchange.
🇰🇪 Kenya — Supporting Smallholder Farmers and Food Security 🌱
📅 Deadline: 19 July 2026
Work in resource centres, model farms and directly with small-scale farmers to strengthen incomes, food security and resilience. Support sustainable agriculture through soil conservation and vertical vegetable gardening, boost farmers' digital skills for planning, and join tree planting, nursery management and seedling distribution with schools, women's and youth groups. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — hands-in-the-soil work with a direct line to food security.
🗺️ Not sure if your country is eligible? The full list of ESC and Erasmus+ programme and partner countries — including many outside the EU. Check eligibility →
🇸🇮 Slovenia — Permaculture and Learning Garden Sustainability 🌿
📅 Deadline: 30 July 2026
Become one of four volunteers focused on sustainability, with your main role in a community garden being transformed into a learning garden for small-scale permaculture. Tend a therapeutic herb area, cooperate with local ecological farms, run workshops, and grow your own knowledge of ecological gardening alongside a mentor. Open to applicants from 38 countries across Europe — learn permaculture by literally building the garden that teaches it.
🇪🇸 Spain — Teaching Assistant at a Kindergarten and Primary School 🎨
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
Join a public school in a multicultural neighbourhood with a values-led, emotionally aware approach: support formal and non-formal learning through games, run creative, artistic and music workshops, give individual and small-group learning support, and contribute to community and environmental sustainability initiatives. Open to residents of Italy — a warm, values-driven classroom to grow into.
🇵🇹 Portugal — Supporting the Red Cross Across Social and Youth Activities 🌿
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
Support a local Red Cross branch across its social, first-aid and youth work: help at a centre for people with disabilities and an elderly home, run activities for children in schools and for youth in difficulty (homework, gardening, sustainability workshops, English), join food banks and clean-walks, and create social media content. Open to residents of France — the Red Cross badge, and a role that touches every corner of a community.
🚫 "I'm not qualified enough." "I don't speak the language." Four common ESC myths — and the facts that prove them wrong. Read the facts →
🇵🇱 Poland — Youth Club Activities and an International Arts Festival 🎬
📅 Deadline: 31 July 2026
Support youth creativity in a vibrant student city: work with teenagers in a youth club supporting workshops, help organise an international artistic festival, and gain hands-on experience in project coordination, event management, promotion, logistics and workshop facilitation while developing your leadership and teamwork skills — run a real international festival from the inside.
🇳🇵 Nepal — Empowering Children Through Health and Education 📚
📅 Deadline: 2 August 2026
Join a humanitarian programme in rural Nepal focused on public health, child protection, early childhood education and teacher development. Assist local health workers, promote hygiene and sanitation awareness, run creative learning activities for children, support early childhood development centres and teacher training, and help empower marginalised communities. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — deep-field development work in the Himalayan foothills.
🇹🇿 Tanzania — Education and Permaculture in Zanzibar 🌱
📅 Deadline: 3 August 2026
Join a team supporting education, community outreach and permaculture in underserved communities across Zanzibar. Teach and facilitate workshops in science, arts, sports, leadership and entrepreneurship, support vocational training for women, and get hands-on with permaculture gardens, tree planting and beach cleaning, reaching children, youth and women in remote villages. Open to applicants from 31 countries across Europe — island fieldwork spanning classrooms, gardens and the shoreline.
📋 First time applying? The complete ESC guide walks you through eligibility, costs and how the whole thing works. Read it here →
💼 Internships & Paid Positions
🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Finance and Accounting at an International Education and Mobility Organisation 📊 (£1,350/month)
📅 Deadline: 5 July 2026
Finance and business students: take on real responsibility with an IAESTE internship in the UK. Work directly with senior management on the financial operations of three international businesses, with mentoring and genuine ownership of key processes — real ownership, not shadowing, from week one.
🇩🇪 Germany — Finance Analyst, Digital Euro Project at the European Central Bank 📊 (€4,982/month net)
📅 Deadline: 7 July 2026
The European Central Bank is hiring a Finance Analyst for its Directorate Digital Euro in Frankfurt, working on one of the most significant projects in European finance. A strong net salary, excellent benefits, and a multicultural public-institution environment await — a hand in shaping the money of the future.
🇲🇽 Mexico — Teach Italian as a Language Instructor at a Technological Institute 📚 (MXN 12,000/month)
📅 Deadline: 7 July 2026
Love languages and teaching? Through IAESTE, teach Italian to beginner, intermediate and advanced students at a technological institute in Durango, Mexico. Plan lessons, run communicative activities, and share Italian culture in a supportive academic environment — teaching, travel and a whole new continent, all at once.
🇰🇷 South Korea — Development Finance and Carbon Markets at the Global Green Growth Institute 🌱 ($500/month stipend)
📅 Deadline: 8 July 2026
Interested in development finance and carbon markets? Join the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in Seoul. Support the budget unit, contribute to carbon assessment for the Global Voluntary Carbon Market, and gain hands-on experience in an international environment — specialist climate-finance experience at an international institute.
🇨🇭 Switzerland — Human Rights Documentation Administration at the UN Human Rights Office ⚖️
📅 Deadline: 13 July 2026
Passionate about human rights and keen on the United Nations? Join OHCHR in Geneva. Within the Meetings and Documents Unit, help produce, process and disseminate the official documentation behind the Human Rights Council — a seat inside the machinery of global human rights.
🇫🇷 France — Social Media Officer at the OECD 📊 (€3,590/month)
📅 Deadline: 21 July 2026
A creative social media professional ready to shape the voice of a leading international organisation? Join the OECD in Paris as a Social Media Officer. Drive content and engagement across LinkedIn, X, Instagram and more, turning data and analysis into compelling stories — your content, carrying the voice of a global institution.
🎓 Erasmus+ Opportunities
🇱🇹 Lithuania — Building Cooperation Between Youth Organisations 🌊
📅 Deadline: 14 July 2026
A six-day training course strengthening cooperation between EU and non-EU youth structures, with a focus on supporting and networking with youth organisations. Through a maritime-themed co-creation lab, build concrete skills in Erasmus+ project design, partnership management, budgeting and proposal writing, and draft real applications together. Open to youth workers based in Lithuania, Poland and Italy, and to Belarusian participants — leave with a real Erasmus+ application, not just notes.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria (Online) — Justice and Due Process in Democracy ⚖️
📅 Deadline: 22 July 2026
An interactive webinar exploring how justice and due process work together in healthy democracies, part of the Polarities of Democracy series. Through dialogue, practical examples and reflection, discover why both values are essential, examine current democratic challenges, and see how the framework applies to youth work and community engagement. No prior knowledge needed — a free, thought-provoking hour on the foundations of democracy.
🌍 Youth Forums & Contests
🇧🇪 Belgium — Shape EU Policy at the EIGE Gender Equality Forum 🗣️ (Funded participation)
📅 Deadline: 7 July 2026
The EU agency for gender equality is inviting 35 young people to Brussels to help shape the conversation on gender equality and EU competitiveness. Travel, accommodation and a daily allowance are covered for up to 30 participants, so your voice can reach high-level decision-makers — a rare chance to put your view directly in front of EU policymakers.
🇪🇺 Alpine Region — Pitch Your Idea for a Sustainable Future with EUSALP 💡 (Win up to €5,000)
📅 Deadline: 8 August 2026
Young people of the Alps: got an idea to make your region more sustainable, digital and future-ready? Pitch it to EUSALP. The top 5 present at an international forum, and the three best win prize money plus expert mentorship to make it happen — turn a napkin sketch into a funded, mentored project.
Thirty opportunities across 25 countries in a single batch — and this is one of the most globe-spanning ESC, internship and youth-forum drops of the season. An animal sanctuary for rescued farm animals and chronically ill dogs in northern Italy, a Kekri harvest festival marking the turn from light to winter in Eastern Finland, digital-skills training for internally displaced youth near Tbilisi, community development in the slums of Kampala, an arts residency touring experiential museums across Romania, education and permaculture in the villages of Zanzibar, human rights documentation at the UN's OHCHR in Geneva, an OECD social media officer role in Paris, teaching Italian at a technological institute in Durango, Mexico, development finance and carbon markets at GGGI in Seoul, and a €5,000 EUSALP pitch contest for the young people of the Alps — these are not opportunities you'll see grouped together again.
The reach this time is truly five-continent. Europe anchors the ESC placements — Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Georgia, Serbia (with two distinct roles), Romania, Spain, Finland, France, Slovenia, Portugal and Poland — while Africa brings Ghana's health and gender work, Kenya's smallholder-farming placement, Uganda's Kampala slum-community role and Tanzania's Zanzibar education-and-permaculture project. Asia adds a humanitarian placement in rural Nepal, and Latin America a language-teaching internship in Mexico. The paid and salaried roles cluster around the institutions — the ECB in Frankfurt, the OECD in Paris, OHCHR in Geneva, GGGI in Seoul and IAESTE in the UK — while Brussels and the Alps host the two youth forums. The Italian animal sanctuary closes first on 4 July, a heavy cluster falls 7–19 July, and the calendar runs out with Nepal, Tanzania and the EUSALP contest into early August. Choose yours.
