In the European Solidarity Corps (ESC), organisations have to select the participants from the database of registered young people. The European Solidarity Corps Portal is a place where young people interested in solidarity activities and organisations offering those activities can connect with each other. For Youth Exchanges, Volunteering Teams, training courses, seminars and study visits, young people apply to the call itself; the call may ask young people to apply directly, or it may name a sending organisation in their country through which they have to apply, so they must read the details of each call. Our guide on how to get more applicants covers where to publish a call.
Last updated: November 2026.
How do ESC organisations find volunteers?
Once awarded a Quality Label, organisations have access to the European Solidarity Corps Portal. In the Portal, organisations are invited to publish volunteering activities for which they are looking for participants. Organisations must make use of the European Solidarity Corps Portal's database to search for potential participants. Technically organisations can search the portal and contact candidates, but in practice this does not happen. Young people who want to join solidarity activities must be at least 17 years old and register in the European Solidarity Corps Portal Placement Administration Support System (PASS). Registered candidates obtain a unique Personal Registration Number (PRN), can look for opportunities and express their interest in them. Once the organisation and the registered candidate have found each other, the organisation sends an offer to the registered candidate.
In the support role, organisations select and match registered candidates in the European Solidarity Corps Portal or support the registered candidates to find suitable opportunities. The host organisation may also undertake this task. Young people with fewer opportunities may receive support from organisations to complete the registration phase. In Volunteering Teams in High Priority Areas, organisations have to select participants in PASS, and those participants have to be registered in the Portal. In the European Solidarity Corps, young people registered on the European Solidarity Corps Portal apply to the opportunities themselves; organisations do not usually send offers first. Our guide on how to register on the ESC Portal shows the candidate's side, our guide on supporting organisations covers the support role, our guide on Volunteering Teams covers the group format, and our guide on inclusion support covers young people with fewer opportunities.
How do Erasmus+ youth projects find participants?
For Youth Exchanges, Volunteering Teams, training courses, seminars and study visits, young people apply to the call itself; the call may ask young people to apply directly, or it may name a sending organisation in their country through which they have to apply, so they must read the details of each call. There is no single registration point for Erasmus+ youth projects: calls are published separately (also on Youth Works Hub), and each call explains how to apply. Erasmus+ youth projects have no standard application format; each call explains how to apply. The three usual ways are a motivation letter and a Europass CV sent by email to the address in the call; an application form, which asks for the same information as the letter and CV; and, for the European Solidarity Corps, a profile on the European Solidarity Corps Portal, filled in once, after which you only click Apply for each project. A motivation letter applies to both ESC and Erasmus+ youth projects, but in Erasmus+ youth projects a motivation letter is rarely asked for; most Erasmus+ calls use an application form instead. Our guide on how to plan a Youth Exchange covers the rest of the project.
How must you select?
In the European Solidarity Corps, volunteers are to be selected in a fair, transparent and objective way, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, political opinion or disability. Organisations must not require any previous qualifications, educational level, specific experience or language knowledge. A more specific profile of the volunteer might be drawn up if justified by the nature of the tasks of the activity or by the project context. Organisations must follow the age rules of the Guide fully, but they can narrow the age range within a call (for example 18 to 25 for a Youth Exchange instead of 13 to 30), because project coordinators plan the activity around its aims and the target group. Level of education is not a barrier: someone who has only finished middle school can also take part in the projects. Our guide on the ESC Quality Label lists the principles behind these rules, and our guide on inclusion support covers extra support.
How do you check real motivation?
Hosting organisations often use a selection process with several steps to understand a candidate's real motivation: whether they care about the topic or mainly want to leave their country or job, or see volunteering as travel. A demanding application also filters out candidates who are not really motivated. Host organisations select volunteers mainly by the volunteer profile the project needs and by the CV and motivation letter; the motivation letter should clearly state the volunteer's personal qualities, what volunteering means to the volunteer, why the volunteer wants to join that project and what it will give the volunteer. The basic qualities of a good volunteer are personal responsibility, social responsibility, being ready to work in a team, communication skills, adapting to other cultures, being able to take criticism and reflect on yourself, openness to new things, curiosity and willingness to share. Our guide on the ideal ESC volunteer goes through these qualities.
What do you owe the people you select?
Selected volunteers should be told every detail honestly, for example that they may live in a small rural area, that transport may be only a bicycle, or that housing may be mixed-gender. After selection, some organisations connect new volunteers with previous or current volunteers by video call so they can ask questions and feel ready. In the European Solidarity Corps, the young people and the organisations must sign a volunteering agreement that will outline the rights and responsibilities of both parties and will include a well-defined set of volunteering tasks. In practice the volunteering agreement is signed at least two weeks before the activity starts, and the fully signed agreement is needed for the visa application. In Erasmus+ youth projects, selected applicants are always contacted, but rejected applicants are often not contacted at all, because some projects receive so many applications that coordinators do not reply to each one. Our guide on the ESC activity agreement explains the document.
Frequently asked questions
Can we require English?
No: organisations must not require any previous qualifications, educational level, specific experience or language knowledge. A more specific profile of the volunteer might be drawn up if justified by the nature of the tasks of the activity or by the project context. Our guide on the ESC Quality Label lists the principles behind these rules.
Can two friends join the same project?
Two friends can technically go to the same ESC project, but host organisations usually prefer volunteers from different countries for intercultural diversity rather than two young people from the same country. Our guide on how to become a host organisation covers the host role.
Do we send the offer or do they apply?
In the European Solidarity Corps, young people registered on the European Solidarity Corps Portal apply to the opportunities themselves; organisations do not usually send offers first. Registered candidates can look for opportunities and express their interest in them, and once the organisation and the registered candidate have found each other, the organisation sends an offer to the registered candidate. Our guide on how to register on the ESC Portal shows the candidate's side.
Can we host a volunteer from our own country?
Yes: the same organisation can take on both roles; in that case the project necessarily takes place in one country, that is, the project is in-country. In an in-country project, two different organisations from the same country can also take part; the Guide does not forbid this, it only does not require it. Our guide on how to become a host organisation covers the host role.
What should you do next?
Organisations can open a page on Youth Works Hub to publish opportunities and posts. Youth Works Hub checks what organisations publish from their own pages, but the content organisations share from their own profiles is entirely the responsibility of those organisations. The Youth Works Hub pages below cover the next steps.
Related pages: how to get more applicants · how to become a host organisation · supporting organisations · how to register on the ESC Portal · the ideal ESC volunteer
👉 ESC projects: youthworkshub.org/?tab=esc-projects
👉 Erasmus+ projects: youthworkshub.org/?tab=erasmus-projects
